Here are 5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed. This week: two devices, Google Analytics, Marketing statisticians and how B2B Marketers can garner additional resources.

1. iPhone 5 announcement next week

On Tuesday Apple will announce their new iPhone(s). What makes the announcement so interesting is the secrecy and rumors surrounding the release. Check out this infographic on iPhone5 rumors [link]

My Take: A inMobi survey of iPhone users reported 41%plan to upgrade to the new iPhone 5.

Roughly 73 million iPhones have been sold worldwide. Assuming 1/2 are still in existence and the 41% number holds worldwide, that’s nearly 15 million people upgrading to the new iPhone when it releases. It will be interesting to see if Apple releases a iPhone 4S and what that does to Android sales.

2. Kindle Fire Released, not an iPad killer, but still pretty killer

Fire Specifications:

The Fire is no iPad and it doesn’t try to be. It’s hardware is well short of the iPad, but at roughly half the price, it is much more accessible and stillÂ retains key features most want.

7″ display
no camera
no microphone
Wi-Fi only
Just 8 GB of memory
$199

Interesting links about the Fire:

[link] Pictures up close with the Fire

[link] Video of the Fire

[link] TechCrunch is right, the Fire is a “sub-iPad” sort of like a iTouch for tablets

[link] The Fire may be part of a broader strategy. The device may be a loss leader but when paired with Amazon Prime it could help Amazon sell a lot more stuff.

[link] Silk browser is more than just a browser. It prefetchs content to increase load times and take the processing burden off the device. It’s ingenious but Amazon’s caching of content adds security concerns.

[link] 10 things we don’t know about the Fire

My Take: Will Amazon, only recently a hardware manufacturer, do what Samsung, Motorola and RIM could not? That is – release a tablet which garners significant market share?

Other android tablets tried to compete head to head but couldn’t. The Fire isn’t trying to be the same as the. IPad, it’s trying to be the best tablet for consuming content at an affordable price – it’s going after the market segment that would like an iPad but won’t shell out $500 to get one.

3. Google Analytics Gets Real-Time Data with New Enterprise Edition

[link] The new features (customer support, SLA and increased usability/functionality) will entice those using other analytics programs and GA basic users.

My Take: Google doesn’t have a strong history of enterprise support (although if anyone can do it..) but the features and benefits seem compelling. With a price tag is $150,000 annually I wonder how many organizations will jump up to Premium.

4. ‘Big Data’ Means Business Needs Mathematicians

[link] Just as in moneyball, statistics are becoming increasingly important, and it requires a special kind of NERD.

My Take: As Marketers migrate further into digital channels it needs more expertise on items such as: segmentation, integration, touch-point analysis, predictive modeling and attribution. Does your Marketing department have a statistician? Should it?

5. Marketing Research Chart: Top barriers to overcoming B2B marketing challenges

[link] Lack of resources is listed as the top challenge for B2B Marketer. This totally resonated with me.

My Take: How to overcome these challenges? Demonstrate contribution to revenue.

5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed 10-1-11