Thursday, September 18, 2008

AP Reports Mobile Traffic

The Associated Press has reported traffic information for the firm's mobile service, the AP Mobile News Network, saying that it received more than 16 million page view for the month of August, with 948 news organizations providing content to the mobile offering. The service--which is being powered by Encinitas-based Verve Wireless--is the AP's attempt to establish a beachhead in the mobile market, and to establish new outlet for news and information from the AP's newspaper members. Testifying to the power of Apple's iPhone, the AP said the majority of the traffic--95 percent--to the firm's site is actually via the iPhone and iTouch, rather than from its mobile site. The AP selected Verve Wireless earlier this year to provide the technology behind its mobile site; verve is venture backed by the AP, and headed by publisher Art Howe and Tom Kenney, formerly a VC at Bluerun Ventures.