As last week, we’ve been swimming in company results this week, with Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Samsung all posting their latest financials.

While Amazon and Apple may not quite be at the stage of crying into their beer (or whatever hot US tech companies drink), it was Facebook and Samsung who were popping the champagne corks. Samsung’s mobile division posted a 52 per cent year-on-year increase in profits, while over at Facebook, the social networking giant revealed that 41 per cent of its earnings now come from mobile. Who said that Facebook couldn’t make money from mobile? Well, quite a few people actually and CEO Mark Zucckerberg is no doubt enjoying watching them eat their words.

It’s all fuelled, of course, by our love affair with smartphones, which shows no signs of abating. Figures from IDC revealed that smartphone shipments in the last quarter rose by no less than 52 per cent year-on-year, with the biggest growth coming from Tier-2 vendors selling Android devices to high-growth countries such as China and India.

One of the things we’re all doing on these smartphones, as everyone knows, is showrooming. But before you blame it all on the kids and their instant gratification approach to life, check out the research we covered from IMRG which revealed that the activity is more rife among the over-35s than it is among 18-24 year olds. Odd but true.

Elsewhere this week, Argos continued on its digital reinvention with the launch of an Augmented Reality version of its catalogue, courtesy of Blippar; Qriously launched its Opinion Targeting platform after a 12-month trial; YouGov revealed that tablet ownership in the UK has now reached 22 per cent, with more female owners and young buyers behind the four per cent quarter-on-quarter rise. And Kirsty Styles got up close and personal with Google Glass on a visit to Somos London Innovation Lab.

We also spoke to Acision CMO J.F. Sullivan about the company’s multi-platform messaging solution, and signed up three more companies to speak at Mobile Marketing Live in October, including Unilever, Deutsche Telekom and Sol361.

It’s shaping up to be a great event. Stay tuned to the site over the next seven days for more on that, and everything else that’s happening in the mobile marketing universe.

David Muphy

Editor