A new update for Limelight REACH went live late yesterday. New features in release 4.10 include:

• RSS notification when videos prepared for HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) are complete, even while preparation for other mobile devices is still underway
• REACH Interactive content report, showing percentage of video watched, buffering events
• REACH Interactive campaign report, showing ad delivery and user interaction
• Links to ad creatives prepared for mobile delivery, accessed from OpsCenter
• Playlist containing ad creatives prepared for mobile delivery, independent from video content, for specialized clients
• Video processing optimization

REACH Interactive is only three months old, but we’ve made quick progress in adding features and functions to the portfolio addition. As shown in the chart above, the new video playback metrics provide detail on the amount of video actually watched in a mobile application, and any buffering events that might have occurred. Users can zoom in on different windows of time to see how well an in-app video performed, and whether it held audiences’ attention.

For more information on all of our new features, see the complete 4.10 release notes.

Mobile commerce sparks a lot of discussion, but if you’re curious how the revenue stacks up, a piece out this week by the Associated Press offers some clues. It points out two big successes, but also shows where there’s substantial room for improvement. According to the article, eBay and Amazon account for 80% of transactions today, and much of their success can be credited to how simple they’ve made mobile shopping for consumers. On the other hand, mobile retailing as a whole has a long way to go. The AP cites Forrester Research with the forecast that mobile commerce sales will only reach 2% of overall online sales this year, for a total of $6 billion in revenue.

Amazon and eBay are demonstrating that mobile retailing can be a profitable endeavor, but they’re also highlighting how small the market is right now. Ideally, these companies should be a smaller piece of a much larger pie. Inevitably – whether it’s tomorrow or a few years from now – they will be.

Mobile video content is most popular in the first 30 days after publication. Now that should come as no surprise, but it does have implications for media archiving and monetization. From our customer data, we’ve found that on average, 88.8 percent of mobile video views take place in the first 30 days, with 95.5 percent taking place within a 90-day window. Publishers may use this information to fine-tune their media storage policies, or they may choose to target ad insertions only within the first 90 days after a piece of content is published. After 90 days, the value of most video assets (not all) goes down significantly.

With the release of Limelight REACH Version 4.8, our customers now have direct control over video deletion and ad insertion policies right from the OpsCenter interface. Both can be adjusted at a granular level, with users determining how long both primary videos and advertisements should remain active. Maybe they should all stay active forever, but maybe old video assets are just taking up space.

We’re nearing the start of football season again, and with large numbers of US consumers owning smartphones and tablets, the time is ripe for a look at NFL mobile offerings. One of our customers, the Kansas City Chiefs, ramped up its mobile presence in 2010 with a new mobile site and new mobile apps. The team’s mobile features include:

• Nearly 2,000 videos, including game highlights, live press conferences, and player interviews
• GPS features for navigating the team’s newly renovated Arrowhead Stadium
• A Connect feature for purchasing tickets or connecting to the Chiefs’ Facebook page
• Seat views for a preview of the field from the seat you purchase

For the video portion of the KC Chiefs’ mobile offerings, the team has chosen to work with the Limelight Video Platform. Our flexible APIs mean we can provide key data around video assets including thumbnail images, clip titles, descriptions, and metadata tags. The Chiefs have used that information to create their own mobile interface, and to offer innovative mobile functionality like customized playlists, and the ability to search within video clips by keyword. In the future, fans will also be able to submit their own videos and photos from watching and attending games.

Not every NFL franchise has the mobile chops of the Kansas City Chiefs, but expect sports teams to continue improving their mobile offerings as consumers grow increasingly dependent on being web-connected around the clock. Meanwhile, here’s what Lance Brown, Manager of Internet and Digital Media with the Chiefs, has to say about his team’s experience taking football to the mobile masses.

“These mobile experiences are unlike any other, and the NFL is incredibly impressed by them. The speed at which the videos have become so popular has far exceeded our expectations and has significantly increased fan engagement. Our fans can now enjoy an interactive game-day experience anytime, anywhere.”

Nielsen has new data out today showing that Android users spend two thirds of their mobile broadband time accessing apps rather than the web. These figures mark a shift in behavior from 2010, but not an unexpected one. What is unexpected, however, is the caveat Nielsen introduces in its report. Of the apps that Android consumers use, the top ten most popular ones account for 43 percent of app usage time. For mobile advertisers, that has important implications. It shows the value of advertising through top-tier Android apps, but it also suggests that marketing through the mobile web may still be a better investment than brand-specific apps, which may have trouble getting traction next to select apps that are already in heavy use.

One other note: Nielsen is reporting on Android smartphones with its latest numbers, which means tablet behavior is not part of the mobile analysis. Forrester found in a survey earlier this year, however, that among tablet owners, browser use is more prevalent than app use. According to the survey, 39 percent of respondents reported spending more time using a tablet’s browser, while only 16 percent reported spending more time using apps. The bigger screen appears to make a big difference, and it shows why the mobile web is still a critical channel for marketers.

The latest Nielsen numbers are out on market share for the top mobile operating systems. Once again Android tops the list, but RIM has dropped substantially compared to both Android and Apple’s iOS. Back in March, Nielsen reported that Android had 29% market share, with both iOS and RIM coming at at 27%. Today, the numbers are Android at 39%, Apple iOS at 28%, and RIM down to 20%.

Interestingly, our own data paints a different picture, at least when it comes to how users consume media on the go. Looking at the numbers in May, we found that iOS media requests far outpaced Android ones, at a rate of more than two to one. RIM, meanwhile, only factored into the “other” category, which amounted to a paltry 5%. It will be time to re-examine those numbers again soon. Perhaps with the reported increase in market share, Android media requests will surge as well.

Most video streams delivered by the Apple HLS streaming protocol are accessed via high-speed Internet connections – not over lower-speed broadband networks. What does that mean? In short, consumers appear to be using Wi-Fi most often to get their video fix on Apple iPads, iPhones, and iPods.

We’ve tracked and analyzed billions of media requests from iOS devices over the last twelve months, and we’ve discovered that the majority of HLS stream requests are being made at the two highest available bit rates. That seems to match up with another data point heralded today by IDG analyst Bob O’Donnell. According to O’Donnell’s report to Computerworld, sales of 3G tablets have been very slow, with consumers preferring their Wi-Fi brethren. Of course, Internet video is also a much more enjoyable experience when you can watch it over a high-speed connection, so 3G tablets aside, it’s perhaps not surprising that consumers are saving up their video watching for those times when Wi-Fi is available.

If you look at the numbers (above), you can also see a significant jump in HLS requests overall in March of this year – right after the launch of the Verizon iPhone, and about the time Apple brought the iPad 2 to market.

A new technology relationship with Medialets mobile ad platform, announced this week, allows Limelight EyeWonder Interactive Advertising to create and deliver ads to more than 200 premium publishers via Medialets Universal SDK.

By utilizing Medialets Creative API, EyeWonder can leverage a slew of new ad formats and features previously only available on Medialets’ proprietary platform, such as video, growable ad units, social media sharing, SMS and send-to-a-friend capabilities and embedded maps.

By opening its ad platform to third-party rich media providers like EyeWonder, Medialets helps facilitate a scalable, flexible way for premium publishers and marketers to maximize opportunities for significant ROI on mobile media buys. The availability of this new inventory offers a wealth of possibilities for engaging audiences with robust rich media and video ads on a variety of mobile and connected devices.

Our own Jonathan Cobb, CTO for the Limelight Mobility and Monetization group, recently participated in an interview with John Ebbert over at AdExchanger.com. He discussed the new REACH Interactive product, challenges that publishers face in the mobile video space, and the growing publisher ecosystem. What also surfaced in the interview were three specific trends in mobile video advertising. Here’s what Jonathan sees happening in the industry today, and what’s just over the horizon.

1. Publishers are looking for more control.

Initially, online video publishers were content to let ad networks do most of the monetization work. Now, however, they’re looking to control more of the action. Increasingly publishers are taking a hybrid approach, combining ad network relationships with direct ad sales that let them capture premium rates on their most valuable inventory.

2. There will soon be a glut of mobile video inventory.

As consumers get used to the idea of watching video on their mobile phones, publishers will increase their mobile distribution, and that will raise the amount of available ad inventory. However, even though there will soon be an oversupply, most of the new inventory will not be associated with premium content. Premium mobile video content will still be relatively limited and will command higher rates.

3. Standardization in metrics

Mobile ad measurement is evolving, and there’s an increasing push to standardize metrics. The more advertisers come to rely on the mobile channel, the faster we’ll start to see consensus around how to define and measure mobile audiences.

Tablets offer the perfect platform for online shopping. They’re portable, built for content consumption, and fun to interact with. Unfortunately, many retailers haven’t figured out yet how to work these new devices into their online strategies. The reasons are a combination of technical and workflow challenges. Retailers have a hard time with the lack of Flash on iPads, but also with how to streamline content production for distribution on so many different devices.

While many retailers struggle with the tablet platform, however, some are taking advantage of it – and not just as a remote shopping platform, but also on site at retail locations. Mashable has a round-up of seven different ways retailers are using iPads in their stores, from customization kiosks to mobile menus complete with an order-from-your-table function in restaurants. Check out the full story for detailed examples. And get inspired.