I have been pondering over ever increasing hue and cry about mobile marketing, for a while.
I have been going around to people from US to Europe to India to Australia etc. etc. etc. asking about their views on top 10 points to consider in Mobile Marketing area. Received numerous responses.
To give out the results of this survey, I am putting my views and the results together in a white paper on the same…which will be out soon…
If any of you would like to get the same…please get in touch with us and we will send it promptly. Till then…keep reading and sharing your views/ comments…
VS
June 26, 2008
Businesses always make more profits when they get early mover advantage in the market for new technologies and ideas. Individual/ end users many a times get benefited when they adopt a technology in later stages of its development. Because by then, most, if not all, lacunae would have been filled by the manufacturers. I sincerely hope that the reader of this post is getting, what I am pointing at…Yes…U guessed it right…I am talking about Apple’s new 3G iPhone…
In India especially, there is a huge market for second hand phones and Chinese duplicate versions. When iPhone was launched first time by Apple, it became an instant hit everywhere around the world. But since it was on costlier side (Approx. Rs.30000+ in Indian currency), it could be afforded only by either business class people or people in high positions in companies. Surprisingly, it didn’t take even months or weeks but just a few days when iPhone came into market with no guarantees or warranties what so ever. These were imports from United States where iPhone was released first. Many people lost huge sums of money in buying these models just in hope that these may work just as good as the original one. There were hacking programs available in market which claimed to break the iPhone lock and make it work on the usual GSM carriers (similar story occurred in China).
And now…here you go…Apple has launched an all new upgraded version of iPhone and that too at less than half the old price (Approx. Rs.8000 - Rs.12500) in two storage versions i.e. 8GB and 16GB capacities. It has come out with more storage, better features and more affordable rates for everybody. Its 3G iPhone…and more
With fast 3G wireless technology, GPS mapping, support for enterprise features like Microsoft Exchange, and the new App Store, iPhone 3G puts even more features at your fingertips.And like the original iPhone, it combines three products in one — a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet device with rich HTML email and a desktop-class web browser. It redefines what a mobile phone can do — again.
All these features are making the old iPhone users fume as they spent more to get less and now even if they want to resell their models, they will not be able to get even Rs.5000 for the same as the new upgraded 3G iPhone version with 8GB capacity will be just Rs.8000 approx. so why will anybody buy an old one for almost the same price…This justifies the title of this post…
VS
June 14, 2008
One of the senior officer’s of Department of Telecommunication in India has informed media that “There is no problem with the BlackBerry handsets or services and BlackBerry services are not going to be discontinued in India.” This is inspite of the fact that Research in Motion — the Canada-based maker of the push-mail device — is yet to resolve India’s security concerns.
The issue rose due to recent terrorist attacks in Rajasthan. Indian security department officials had raised an objection on encrypted messaging that happens from Blackberry devices which is being used by terrorist groups regularly for communication.
RIM’s spokesperson in India informed that they are still in talks with senior government officials over this issue but he also said that till date outcomes of these meetings have been positive.
Thus, I can say that many Blackberry enthusiasts in India will now be able to buy the device and fulfill their wishes to be among Blackberry users.
VS
June 13, 2008
India is catching up too in number of new startups and number of candidates looking for taking risk early/ late in their careers, to join these startups.
Last weekend, I attended a Startup Lunch event held in Delhi (India) as a team building exercise. About 25 startups registered for the event and about 18 presented their businesses to 80+ prospective candidates. Many candidates were interviewed by these startups and results were almost mind blowing. Many candidates were hired by more than one startup.
I also presented showcasing CellStrat’s products and services. We got lot of attraction from almost all present there. This is because Mobile applications area is still a brand new area and people are just now beginning to get their hands around mobile data apps and uses.
Although venture funding companies are investing less in Indian companies in comparison to other countries, but good ideas and people behind the same have no fear and quite a few might become successful.
VS
June 11, 2008
The new 3G iPhone is creating substantial buzz. Check out Om Malik’s interview with Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility.
http://gigaom.com/2008/06/09/att-mobility-ceo-new-3g-iphone-game-changer/
One of the concerns is that increase in mobile data usage for social networking, LBS or streaming video apps is going to cause a lot of network congestion on AT&T wireless network. Mr de la Vega is confident that AT&T network can handle it. For more power users of mobile data, the hope is that they are smart enough to use WiFi connection on the iPhone to download large data files instead of congesting the wireless network. A future filled with FMC devices like Femtocells only makes sense here. Femtocells will allow bandwidth hogging home wireless to pass on broadband wireline connections allowing the wireless network to remain somewhat available.
AT&T is taking some hits on its earnings estimates due to the lowered iPhone price and Apple is taking a hit as well as AT&T will no longer share the subscription revenue. But overall sales volume is expected to increase dramatically with the lower price and that is expected to more than compensate for the lower price on the device.
The new iPhone is loaded with good stuff. The App Store will allow for a slew of cool consumer and enterprise apps. The enterprise support is great with MS-Exchange integration. GPS is cool for LBS accuracy.
Nokia and RIM need not fear however. iPhone will only increase smartphone penetration increasing the size of the market for everybody. We feel the smartphones will cannibalize the non-smartphone cellphone market to some extent.
MT
June 10, 2008
Steve Jobs of Apple announced today the availability and details of 3G iPhone. It is available in the US from July 11 for $199. Not sure if if AT&T is discounting it or Apple is willing to sell it at a lower price (compared to $399 for the previous iPhone version). The new iPhone is a 3G device with GPS Mapping, a loaded App Store which houses some cool iPhone apps, MS-Exchange integration (attack on RIM turf - the enterprise?), and GPS. Apparently it is a 8GB device at $199. There is a $16 GB version at $299.
GPS is cool - it will drive Location Based Services and related applications like advertising, finder services and social networking.
MS-Exchange support is cool too as it will help in more enterprise adoption and cause some headaches to the folks at Research in Motion (Blackberry manufacturer).
The price is great too for cost-conscious customers.
Apparently 3G iPhone will be released in 20 countries.
We are excited and cannot wait to lay our hands on the new 3G iPhone.
MT
June 9, 2008
ComScore, the online usage measurement firm, acquired M:Metrics, the mobile specialist in usage measurements for $44.3 million. This amounts to a market consolidation in mobile measurement industry and also a convergence of mobile usage reporting with general online measurements.
This makes ComScore a top firm in mobile measurement space - an area which has seen huge growth rates in recent times with advertisers desire to track and report on user adoption of mobile data services and advertising.
The Nielsen Co. is the other top player in this space.
MT
May 29, 2008
Amol Sharma wrote an interesting article in The Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121030196400479989.html?mod=rss_media_and_marketing&apl=y&r=529113) on the tools being used to measure the impact of Mobile Advertising and Application Usage. Mobile measurement firms M:Metrics, Nielsen and comScore are working on technology to electronically measure the mobile ad views and mobile application usage. So far these firms have relied on customer surveys to determine what applications and ads are being seen by mobile users - this has led to very imperfect scoring patterns for mobile campaign impact measurement. The issue is that mobile ad views and data usage statistics is in the domain of carriers networks and IT systems and the carriers are highly reluctant to share this information with mobile measurement firms or advertisers in fear of impinging on customer privacy, mobile spamming and customer dissatisfaction.
The traditional method of recording customer patterns are opt-in surveys which are highly subjective and depend on customer desire to share accurate data on their usage and preferences. The more sophisticated method involves electronic monitoring software running on phones or digging into the usage logs which carriers control. The monitoring software has to deal with a zillion phone styles and operating systems and needs carrier support which is always a dicey job.
Nobody has forgotten the spam and consumer privacy issues in the online world and the last thing carriers and consumers want is the same set of problems in the mobile space. But advertisers would like accurate measurements of customer usage patterns to see the return on ad-dollars. So we have the classic consumer privacy problem here.
What might make mobile advertising appealing to consumers such that they cozy up to the idea of information sharing ? Perhaps free services to go with advertising or high degree of ad personalization - all of these techniques require prospecting usage logs and customer data which carriers control and determining customer preferences and mobile web usage patterns.
Amol’s article mentions that more likely than not, customer surveys and electronic monitoring will co-exist even after another decade.
MT
May 14, 2008
