The California, USA-located mobile marketing company Velti (NASDAQ: VELT) has entered into an alliance with database marketing company BlueKai Inc. for sharing of mobile data.Following this agreement, brands and agencies using BlueKai's Data Activation System (DAS) will be able to access Velti's extensive mobile marketing data, allowing them access to more precisely target consumers on mobile devices.

Amazon is all set to expand its Android Appstore this year in around 200 countries including - Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, India, South Africa and South Korea - amongst others. The announcement is massive since it opens up all gates for Amazon to launch its Kindle series of tablets in all these markets now.

Last weekend there was news that Microsoft was actively involved in developing a smart watch. All of us have already heard of the success of another smart watch called Pebble. Now, a report put out by market intelligence firm ABI Research has said at least 1.2 million such watches would be shipped this year. The forecast of high penetration of smart watches is based, among other factors, on the wide availability of low cost of MEMS sensors, Bluetooth 4.0, and a flourishing app ecosystem.

Facebook doesn't want its iOS users to feel left alone. The company pushed an update to its iPhone and iPad apps that bring a much cleaner newsfeed display, bug fixes and Chat Heads functionality to the iOS apps. Facebook had earlier launched Facebook Home for Android which included the much talked about feature called Chat Heads.

Google has finally shipped the first batch of Google Glass spectacles to developers. The computing giant also released a companion app on the Android app store that goes with the device along with the API developers can start using and most importantly - specs. This is the first time Google has officially revealed Google Glass specifications publicly.

Netflix is planning to ditch Microsoft Silverlight for HTML5. The company today revealed its plans to eventually switch to HTML5 video. A process, according to Netflix, that will be gradual and based on a lot of testing and iterative developments. Just last month, Google had announced that Netflix was available to its Chromebook users. That was made possible by Netflix's move to HTML5 video.

The free Compuware APM Mobile Application Monitoring Service has been launched by the company that allows users to monitor mobile app performance within few minutes. This free app will enable them to see user’s reactions and app codes bottlenecks, so that developers and operations staff can proactively address performance issues and maximize business results.

Facebook has pushed a new update to its Facebook Messenger app on Android which brings the Chat Heads functionality to some Android devices without Facebook Home. We earlier reported that Facebook had announced a new launched for Android devices - Facebook Home - that will bring a better Facebook experience for a select set of Android devices to start with.

The PC industry has just received a first of the many expected shocks. According to a report by IDC, PC shipments dipped 13.9% in the first quarter this year. That is a massive drop against the much anticipated plunge of just a little over 7% by IDC itself. Personal computers are finally experiencing a slowdown when it comes to sales.

The app store is any mobile ecosystem's power horse. The better the app store is designed to perform, the better the ecosystem evolves. Users happily discover and consume apps, developers are happy and it keeps the cash registers ringing for the mobile operating system owners - a happy, happy world overall.