NEW YORK ? After releasing a Kindle Fire application, The Weather Channel claims that the app had 2 million downloads, showing the growing competition in the tablet market, according to the lunch keynote speaker at yesterday's Mobile FirstLook: Strategy 2012 conference. 

During the 2012 Mobile Firstlook conference, an executive from The Weather Channel spoke about the company?s recent work on the Kindle Fire tablet. Additionally, the executive talked about the ways that marketers can take advantage of the new device for mobile advertising.

?Overnight, the Kindle Fire has become a viable content and marketing platform for clients,? said Patrick McCormack, vice president of mobile sales and strategy at The Weather Channel, Atlanta.

?One insight we have is that clearly the Kindle Fire marries up to tablets similar to the iPad,? he said.

Mobile FirstLook: Strategy 2012 was a presentation of Napean, parent to Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily. 

Tablet war
According to The Weather Channel, the company?s iPad app is the No. 2 all-time downloaded app with 6.5 million downloads.

Looking at the user demographics, men make up 51.7 percent of the iPad?s users and women make up 48.3 percent.

Eighty-five percent of tablet users use the iPad in the living room, per research from Forrester.

The Weather Channel also claims that weather is the No. 1 activity accessed on the iPad, showing opportunities for marketers. According to research from Dynamic Logic, daily life content, such as weather, brings 47 percent of users back to their tablet devices throughout the day.

When it comes to commerce, tablet users like to spend. Sixty percent of tablet owners have purchased via a tablet. Additionally, 10?20 percent of tablet users spend more on their orders.

?Weather impacts everyone?s lives and is a great way to reach consumers,? Mr. McCormack said.

Growing media
The Weather Channel Kindle app is pre-loaded on Amazon Kindle devices.

In addition to downloads, the app has generated 36 million page views with an average of 1 million page views per day.

As mobile continues to grow, marketers need to continue to think of innovative ways to target consumers.

?As the audience grows, marketers need to figure out how to be more clever with targeting content geographically,? Mr. McCormack said.

?Our content is all location-driven and marketers can tailor the message based on the weather,? he said.

?Technologies such as rich media have more real estate connected to it.?

Final Take
Patrick McCormack is vice president of mobile sales and strategy at The Weather Channel, Atlanta