Business and Marketing

A market share grab for smartphones and tablets has computer and electronics marketers devoting half of their digital ad dollars to direct-sales vehicles.

Mobile and direct-response pick up in electonics ads.

Digital advertising spending on the part of marketers of consumer electronics and computing companies will hit $3.8 billion this year, and 54% of their spends will be devoted to direct-response vehicles, according to eMarketer's recently released 2014 Digital Ad Spending Benchmarks report.

That projection, as well as one that has these companies devoting a third of their spending to the mobile channel, is based on stiff competition for smartphone and tablet sales, the report says. The direct marketing focus industry-wide is also fueled by increased spending among B2B players as IT departments shift infrastructure to the cloud.

Advertisers in this space are steadily upping their mobile investments to maintain a presence in the medium where they see customers spending most of their time, according to the report, which quotes a Millennial Media study that showed worldwide mobile spending in the tech sector increasing by 132% in Q3 2013 alone.

Emarketer forecasts steady double-digit increases in digital advertising for the vertical and predicts its spend will surpass $6 billion by 2018.

Business Breaking News: Top 5 Cloud Storage Apps for iOS

This week, Apple announced iCloud Drive, a major upgrade for the company's cloud storage platform that lets you save and sync your files with a simple drag-and-drop interface. The upgrade improves upon the existing iCloud platform, which already lets you back up your contacts, calendars, photos, music and apps to the cloud. The new system is set to debut with the release of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite later this year — but why wait for great cloud storage on iOS? There are already a slew of solid services available for the mobile platform to help you back up your files and access them from anywhere. Read on to learn about the upcoming iCloud Drive, along with four alternatives.

This fall, Apple will launch iCloud Drive, a cross-platform service that will let you access files and documents on your mobile devices. The feature is built right into the Finder in the new version of OS X, Apple's desktop operating system. Just drag and drop a file into your iCloud Drive folder on your MacBook or iMac computer to make it available on any iPhone, iPad, Mac or Windows PC. When you're on an iPhone or iPad, however, there's still no way to view all the files stored in your iCloud Drive folder in one spot. To find files stored in iCloud Drive, you'll need to open a compatible app. For example, when you open the mobile version of Apple's Pages word processor, you'll have access to all the documents you've stored in iCloud Drive. Once it launches, the best reason to pick iCloud Drive could be its integration with both iOS and OS X. That could make this service the obvious choice for Apple devotees.

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