Mobile phones have become a staple of daily life, so much so that most consumers can hardly imagine going through the day without one by their side. The reliance on mobile devices for just about everything makes mobile a platform that content publishers and marketers cannot afford to ignore.

eMarketer predicts mobile content revenues will rise from less than $1.15 billion in 2009 to more than $3.53 billion in 2014, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 20% over the period.

“The continuing advance of smart devices including tablet-style computers, led by Apple’s iPad—and the growing ubiquity of mobile broadband networks mean that consumers have to make fewer compromises when it comes to the consumption of games, music and video,” said Noah Elkin, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, “Mobile Content: Games, Music and Video Take to the Cloud.” “An improved user experience, and the ability to access an ever-expanding variety of content from the cloud, will attract many new mobile content consumers in the next five years.”

A recent Forrester Research study said that the number of consumers using geolocation apps  such as foursquare, which rewards shoppers with points or offers when they check in at a location, is only a few million monthly and it recommended marketers wait to advertise on such apps until more consumers use them.

Many more consumers may soon be using the technology. Social network behemoth Facebook is hoping to crack the location market with its new offering called Places, a geolocation feature that enables Facebook’s 150 million mobile users to broadcast their location through their Facebook status windows via a smartphone’s integrated GPS technology to friends as well as other Places users nearby. Not only is 150 million a big number, Facebook mobile users are twice more active on the social network than non-mobile users, Facebook says.

The key to designing a successful mobile commerce site that draws traffic and generates sales is summed up by MoreVisibility executive vice president Danielle Leitch with a simple phrase: “Give the customers what they want.”

Leitch, critiques of mobile site designs and apps”, says visitors and shoppers will react positively to a mobile commerce design that is visually appealing, built to accommodate a wide variety of smartphones and web-enabled handheld devices, and makes the visitor feel like she is having a unique experience.

“At the end of the day, no matter how a visitor is accessing the mobile site, the design and functionality need to make that shopper feel like the whole thing is personalized,” says Leitch. “You begin the design process by digging deep into your web analytics to see how and with what mobile device customers are accessing the e-commerce site and what pages they find most important.”

The global online population will grow to 2.32 billion by 2014, up 42% from 1.63 billion in 2009, according to projections from Forrester Research Inc.

The Middle East and Africa will grow the fastest during that time, an increase of 78%, but still account for the fewest total number of Internet users, 241 million. For e-commerce purposes, the report says areas that are set to have the most growth include Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, and such countries as Poland, Ukraine, Russia and Turkey. In the Asia Pacific, online spending by Chinese consumers  will outpace India. Brazil will continue to lead e-commerce spending in Latin America.

Forrester Research projects the online population in the U.S. and Canada will grow 3% each year through 2014, but will comprise just 13% of the overall online population by 2014, down from 16% in 2009. The European online population will grow approximately 20% between 2010 and 2014 and account for 22% of the online population.

The Coinstar Hispanic National Currency Poll revealed that a majority of Hispanics have changed their financial plans for the remainder of 2010 in an effort to better protect their financial futures. Close to nine in ten (89%) of those Hispanics who plan to alter their financial plans for the year indicated that they'll put more of a focus on saving. In addition, they are closely monitoring their budgets, saving more of their spare change and cashing in their loose coins more often than they did just a year ago.

"Hispanics should consider their additional loose change to be an important part of their household budget," said Elianne E. Gonzalez, personal finance columnist and web author. "I encourage families to look to their coin jars as an easy way to encourage savings for defined goals and to supplement their spending."

2011 ONLINE AD GROWTH TO OUTPACE TOTAL AD SPEND GROWTH

Borrell Associates is forecasting a moderate increase in overall ad spending for 2011, but continued strong growth for online advertising, including mobile. Overall, advertisers will increase their spending next year by less than 5% above this year's projected level, bringing U.S. ad spending totals to $238.6 billion.

We're expecting total online ad spending to grow almost 14%, from $45.6 billion, in 2010, to $51.9 billion, in 2011. The fastest-growing segments of online advertising are the local sector, anything targeted, and everything involving social media.

By next year, local online advertising should grow by almost 18%, from $13.7 billion, in 2010, to $16.1 billion, in 2011.

Home Ownership Rates soar as people move into their late 30s and 40s, so a rise in households in this age group would naturally be expected to boost the overall home ownership rate. Some see approximately a 600,000 decline in the number of households headed by those aged 35 to 49, simply because the number of folks in that age group will decrease.

The demographer does project a huge increase of seven million in households 50 and older, mainly because of the baby-boomer effect. The residential real estate market might benefit somewhat, assuming people over 50 buy second homes as investments or vacation properties. But the impact probably won't be great.

The number of households headed by someone under 35 a prime rental group expanding faster than the overall population.

The key to the housing outlook is household formation. As defined by the Census Bureau, a household is formed when one person takes separate living quarters, or when two or more people do, regardless of whether those people are married or unmarried, and provided that the quarters aren't in an institution, for example, a prison, nursing home or school dormitory.

The great recession of 2007-09 halted the growth in the number of households led by people under 35. The financial stress also led to the dissolution of some households that those in this age group previously had formed. Net result: The number of younger households fell, even though the ranks of younger Americans continued to increase.

Increase in Renters Rental Rates

Demographics - the home-ownership rate tends to rise with age. For example, while the overall U.S. rate is 67.2%, the rate for households headed by someone under 35 is just 38.9%. Thus, whenever the age distribution of households tilts in favor of younger adults, the overall home-ownership rate declines. That happened in the early 1980s, when young baby boomers began to form households.

There seems to be substantial growth in households formed by people under 35, who mainly rent rather than own. Worsening the shift will be a decline in the number of households led by people 35 to 49 years old the very ages when there is normally a huge jump in ownership. The market does expect a rise in households led by people 50 and older, but the boost to ownership from this won't be great. Home-ownership rates tend to level off when Americans reach their late 40s and early 50s.

The American dream of owning a home is still very much alive, but it will be no more than a dream for a growing number of people over the next five years. That's bad news for home builders, who already have big troubles, as June's reports on housing starts, existing-home sales, building permits and unsold-home inventories showed. But it is good news for anyone renting out a home, apartment or condo, or any real-estate investment trust specializing in residential rental properties.

Most U.S. households own the dwelling they live in, and that isn't likely to change. But demographic and economic forces, together with some perversities of government policy, are combining to push the share of ownership back to where it was in the early 1990s. Already, in the wake of the housing bust that brought on the Great Recession, the share of U.S. households owning homes has slid steadily from 69% at its peak in 2004 to 67.2% in this year's first quarter. And the rate is likely to fall to its 1993-94 level of 64% by 2015.

How To Save Extra Money at Home

How far do go to save money when exploring ways or finding more ways than ever before to save your money.

Getting Rid of Your Car - Do you trade in your beloved wheels for public transportation is definitely extreme, especially if you live in the suburbs. If you can walk, bike, or take public transit where you need to go, get rid of your car entirely. Some people who go carless to save a fortune by eliminating gas, registration, insurance, maintenance, and repair costs, as well as their car lease or loan payments. AAA estimates that the average cost to keep a car on the road is close to $1 per mile after factoring in all of the associated costs. Think about how much of the time your car is sitting unused. It can be a tremendous waste of resources. People who need cars only to run occasional errands can join car-share programs.