Strong smartphone sales help drive 53pc jump in Samsung?s profit
Samsung Electronics estimates that its first quarter operating income will total approximately $7.7 billion. While the number is down slightly from the previous quarter, it still beat analysts? expectations and is up 53 percent year-over-year.

Strong smartphone sales helped drive the company?s strong profits. The South Korea consumer electronics firm also estimates that its first quarter revenue is up 15 percent year-over-year.

The company?s fortunes could get another boost with the opening of Samsung Experience Shops inside more than 1,400 Best Buy stores. The first stores will open this month and all are expected to be in place by early summer.

MLB teams up with Qualcomm to optimize mobile connectivity at ballparks
MLB Advanced Media, the interactive media and Internet division of Major League Baseball, has entered into a multi-year engineering and technology agreement with Qualcomm to survey, plan and optimize mobile connectivity for fans at MLB ballparks.

With mobile data traffic volumes skyrocketing in high-traffic areas such as ballparks, the MLB recognizes that it needs to provide passionate baseball fans with access to digital content if attendees at games are to have favorable in-ballpark experiences.

By collaborating with Qualcomm, this will help MLBAM understand the engineering challenges in achieving scalable, reliable in-venue connectivity and execute on them. Qualcomm will provide in-ballpark assessment and planning for wireless access including Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G.

47pc watch videos in mobile rich media ads: Celtra
Nearly 50 percent of all videos initiated within mobile rich media ads are watched all the way through, according to new research from Celtra Inc.

In a review of 150 videos used on mobile ads that ran in the fourth quarter of 2012, Celtra found that more than 730,000 people viewed the videos with 47 percent watching the entire video. The results also suggest that engagement with mobile video is growing with 14.4 percent of viewers interacting with the ad by playing the video, up 50 percent from the previous quarter.

Additionally, Celtra found that 80 percent of videos are shorter than one minute, and 46 percent shorter than 30 seconds ? the average video length was 45 seconds. The average play time across all videos was 28 seconds or 62 percent of total video length.

Celtra recently enhanced AdCreator ? its rich media ad production, delivery and analytics platform ? to include video reporting to measure interaction with video incorporated into rich media ads.