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New member signups are steaming along at an unprecedented rate and we wanted to pause and highlight one of our new members who has been particularly active.  Fuchida67 hails from Singapore.  He has been uploading and sharing photos by the scores.  He is clearly a gaming enthusiast as he has two photo galleries devoted to computer components and graphics cards.  Check out what we presume is on of his computers, complete with neon lights!

And here is a fantastic shot of one lit up with a black light:

Fuchida67 and his friends:

And one from a funny series of photos that we’re not sure how he produced:

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A little talked about study was recently release by Com.motion and Pollara that looked at how 401 Canadian business leaders plan on utilizing (or not utilizing) social media in 2009.  The results were quite telling.

Some key takeaways quoted from the report:

• Despite the economic slowdown forcing marketers to modify their spending, 82 per cent of Canadian business leaders and senior marketers say they will spend as much or more on social media in 2009 than they did this year. That’s more than for any other marketing communications discipline.

• Nearly four in five Canadian marketers (78 per cent) say senior management supports greater investment in social media. That’s up dramatically from 54 per cent a year ago.

• Canadian business leaders say it would be a mistake to cut back on social and digital spending in tough economic times, with 7 in 10 recommending increased investment.

• Two-thirds of Canadians (65 per cent) who use social media say social media tools are important for learning about products, services, organizations and brands, up from 59 per cent a year ago.

• The number of business leaders who say they are less familiar about social media than their customers has fallen to 17 per cent, down from 26 per cent a year ago.

• Just 7 per cent of Canadian business leaders see social media tools as a fad, down from 15 per cent a year ago. And one in two (46 per cent) say social media tools have forever changed the communications landscape and are becoming more important than communications tool such as television, radio, newspapers and magazines.

• Nearly four in five Canadians (79 per cent) say they have used social media tools. That’s up from 71 per cent a year ago.

Despite all the dark news about the economy it looks as though social media is here to stay.  There will definitely be a bit of rethinking going on in 2009 as companies start demanding more accountability and metrics around social media campaigns, but this latest poll certainly shows that there is a growing commitment to the social media model of marketing and consumer dialog.

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Yet again Next2Friends, your favorite mobile social media start up, has been nominated for the FastPitch Annual Business Awards. Between the 5th of December and the 5th of January vote for us in one of two categories:

Best New Start Up

Best Technology

We have achieved quite a bit this year, from being the first to bring live video broadcasting to Blackberry to letting you socialize from your phone on many of today’s most popular models including Blackberry, the iPhone, Nokia and many more.  So head on over and give us your vote!

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Google’s Open Handset Alliance has gained 14 more pledges this week.  AKM Semiconductor Inc., ARM, ASUSTek Computer Inc., Atheros Communications, Borqs, Ericsson, Huawei Technologies, Omron Software Co. Ltd, Softbank Mobile Corporation, Sony Ericsson, Teleca AB, Toshiba Corporation and Vodafone have all joined the alliance.  What does this mean exactly?  From the OHA website:

• “New members will either deploy compatible Android devices, contribute significant code to the Android Open Source Project, or support the ecosystem through products and services that will accelerate the availability of Android-based devices.”

And perahps not to be outdone by all the news, Garmin announced that they’d be joining the alliance as well.  This brings the total number of members to 47, covering nearly every mobile phone manufacturer and network operator.  Engadget makes a good point in saying that those NOT involved with the alliance are starting to really stand out, notably, Nokia and AT&T.  But this is not surprising given Nokia’s investment into Symbian and AT&T’s involvement with Apple.

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The latest research by Gartner Research shows some interesting movement in the smartphone market, principally that the iPhone is seeing unprecedented sales and growth at the expense of all other device manufacturers and operating systems.  The numbers, which only represent the sales and market share from the 3rd quarter 2008, show an astonishing 327.5% gain for Apple from this time last year:

Granted, the release of the 3G iPhone in Q3 certainly has elevated these numbers, but it is remains pretty stunning that in Q2 of 2008 Apple only commanded 2.8% of the market share and now holds 12.9% of the market.  And for the first time Apple has outsold Windows mobile, something that many industry analysts didn’t even see happening, or if they did, not so soon.

No doubt, Symbian is still the world leading smartphone OS, but they saw their lead erode by 7.1% in a matter of months from 57.1% in Q2 to 49.8% in Q3.  JKOnTheRun asserts, probably accurately, that Symbian will continue to slip as they have no new phones available and the recently announced N97 won’t hit the market for six months so people may hold off buying a new Nokia knowing that the N97 is right around the corner.  Apple has been riding pretty high lately, it will be interesting to see if they can keep it going.

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Juniper Research recently released a study that looks at the mobile gaming landscape now and into the future.  They predict, among other things, that revenue from mobile games will reach a whopping $10 billion by 2013 and that more than 460 million games will be downloaded, an increase that represents twice the rate of today.

What is particularly telling, though, is how Apple’s platform and App store is transforming the business of game development:

• “The revenue share offered by Apple to games publishers is incredibly attractive. The danger is that if operators do not respond with a similar business model, publishers faced with low margins may simply exit Java completely, thereby reducing consumer choice in the longer term.”

Apple offers a revenue share of 70% with developers.  This is in stark contrast to another finding of the report: while ad-funded downloads are growing in popularity, the revenues accrued from advertising are unlikely to be sufficient for developers or operators.  Basically, the old models are failing and Apple’s model could emerge as the only game in town.

Aside from what this means for Apple, there were some other interesting findings, primarily that in developing nations gaming on mobile phones is growing due to lack of internet connectivity and actual gaming consoles.  Some other key points:

• China and the Far East will remain the largest regional market for mobile games throughout the period covered by the report.
• Global revenues from in-game advertising will rise significantly from 2008 to 2013.

• Operators need to reduce data charges further for out of bundle customers to encourage casual mobile Internet usage and thereby stimulate the mobile entertainment market

Looks like mobile entertainment will only grow.

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In a three year study of 800 teens over 5000 hours of observation, The Digital Youth Project found that, contrary to what many parents feel, usage of social networking and social media is actually good for kids. Yet another positive mark for the future of social media.  Among the skills it hones are social and technical navigation.  Will Richardson highlights some of the findings in his excellent blog post:

• “New media allows for a degree of freedom and autonomy for youth that is less apparent in classroom settings. Youth respect one another’s authority online, and they are often more motivated to learn from peers than from adults. Their efforts are also largely self-directed, and  the outcome emerges through exploration, in contrast to classroom learning that is oriented toward set, predefined goals.”

The study further found that youth are mostly using social networking and social media to extend their face-to-face friendships.  They are exploiting the “always on” nature of the internet and mobile communication to keep in constant contact. However this, along with the permanent nature of so much internet interaction is not without it’s pitfalls, but therein lies another valuable lesson young people are learning: to navigate this new medium gracefully.

As Read, Write, Web puts it:

• “It’s a new world for those privileged enough to have access to the web. The consequences of these changes will unfold in years to come.”

Indeed, in the future we may very well see a break between those that have developed these skills and those that have not.

• “Contrary to adult perceptions, while hanging out online, youth are picking up basic social and technological skills they need to fully participate in contemporary society. Erecting barriers to participation deprives teens of access to these forms of learning. Participation in the digital age means more than being able to access “serious” online information and culture. Youth could benefit from educators being more open to forms of experimentation and social exploration that are generally not characteristic of educational institutions.”

So regardless of the detractors, it looks more and more like it will be a social media world in the future.  Unfortunately it might take this fresh generation of social media savvy people to transform corporate culture’s understanding and use (or misuse) of this exciting new medium.

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The 2008 Crunchie Awards are open for nominations. If you’re a fan of Next2Friends drop by the TechCrunch Crunchie nomination page and cast a ballot for us!  The Crunchies is a kitchy and slightly irreverent awards ceremony for new companies, such as Next2Friends, who have been innovating over the past year.  In their second year, the awards will be hosted by GigaOm,