It's Impossible to Tear People Away From Their Phones

During the Superbowl, everyone put their phones down to watch Madonna perform on stage.

Then, they all picked them right back up again once the half time presentation was over, said Peter Farago, VP of marketing at Flurry, an app analytics company.

That's because it's becoming more and more difficult to tear people away from their smartphones and tablets unless they find something that is really interesting.

Speaking at Business Insider's Mobile Advertising conference, Farago broke down a bunch of the biggest trends in mobile. Here they are:

Mobile isn't an experiment. It's critical now. If you need an example, Facebook which bought Instagram for $1 billion in a weekend.

It's not a bloodbath — yet. The growth in the industry is huge. Apps won't be fighting over limited food supply yet.

It's not an "indie playground" any more. Mobile is still largely dominated by companies that start on mobile. But now there are "hoppers and consolidators". Hoppers jump platforms, consolidators buy up a bunch of companies.

Do-it-yourself development is gone. The most successful mobile companies are now big data companies like Zynga that can analyze user behavior. They are companies who use analytics services, too.

It's not just about the U.S. any more. China is growing faster than the U.S.

It's not just one audience of "mobile users" now. Companies need to target specific users and have an acquisition campaign.

It's not about gross installs any more. Monthly users are now gone — it's all about active user acquisitions now (daily active users). In the early day people would just try to get a bunch of organizations, now it's about finding useful customers.

It's not about being the top app in the App Store. Now it's about buying targeted campaigns for specific users that are actually going to spend money

It's not about a split between free and "premium" versions of an app. Now it's about having in-app purchases and advertising revenue.

It's not about manual ad network mediation. Now there are sophisticated supply-side platforms for advertising.

It's Impossible To Tear People Away From Their Phones