How apps can drive business objectives

Remember the summer of 2008? Britain was in financial meltdown and the rain had yet again replaced the sun.

For some, the new iPhone 3G provided that much needed ray of sunshine. IPhone users were drunk on Carling iPints, dizzy from Barclay’s water slides and the Zippo lighter app gave guys an excuse to talk to girls in bars.

The app frenzy was born. The iPhone finally gave marketers the opportunity to get their brands into the hands of customers, providing immersive, viral experiences.

Marketing can do one of three things: inform, add value or entertain, all with the objective to sell.

The pioneering brands that created apps for this unknown medium quickly earned the respect of the industry but set a dangerous trend. Their apps only entertained. Other brands followed.

Now in 2011, the industry has come a long way. Smartphones are mainstream, with all the manufacturers now harnessing the app eco-system.

Whilst there is still a major hype around mobile apps, brands have realized they need to justify ROI and drive that ultimate business objective – to sell.

*********

Mobile has the power to fundamentally change a business, the same way the Internet did in the late 90’s and early 00’s.

Apps are at the forefront of this change and brands are waking up to their true potential.

While the world needs laughter, entertainment apps will always maintain a role.

I took great joy from the Compare The Market soundboard, hearing Alexander the meerkat repeat his “simples” catchphrase, but the life of the app is limited.

What would have been really useful when recently hunting for a new car is a Compare the Market app that allows me to take a photo of the registration plate, then presenting me with a list of car insurance quotes.

We as marketers often lose sight of that ultimate business goal – to sell. If we do not sell, we do not have jobs. You cannot eat yellow pencils.

When you are planning your next app build marketing campaign, keep these questions in mind:

1. Will this app reach my target audience?

At Grapple, we receive endless briefs for iPhone apps – even though the brand’s audience often does not own iPhones.

Know your target audience, understand smartphone user profiles and then build for multiple platforms to extend the reach.

2. Will this app help sell my product?

Find mechanics within your app that will provide value to customers; to increase loyalty and ultimately sell.

Add store-finders, give vouchers, make use of barcode scanners to link the app to the retail presence, and make your app transactional.

-Adam Levene

US mobile ad spend to exceed $1B by year-end

A new report...predicts that marketers will finally allocate sufficient funds into mobile, with an estimated $1 billion in spend for mobile display and search advertising by year-end.

Forrester predicts that marketers will become masters at using mobile marketing channels to generate real leads, drive foot traffic into stores, and to sell products and services.

“Smartphone adoption is growing and with it activities typically associated with PCs, such as researching products, booking hotels, trading stocks, finding nearby restaurants, or simply browsing the Internet,” Forrester’s 2011 Mobile Trends report says.

“Consumer product and service companies will also need to promote their mobile content and services,” it says. “No longer citing an inability to reach their customers as a reason to hold back, marketers will take advantage of the growing audience, targeting it better through location and behavior, as well as using richer media formats, such as video.”

Mobile trends
Besides the explosion in mobile advertising spend, Forrester has nine other predictions for what is in store for the industry in the year ahead.

Groupon [and other market-specific Apps such as Brandel's App4Ads and BizApp Creator] offers...deals via an app
1. Mobile, social and local
Marketers will be increasingly combining mobile with social and local to better target consumers.

2. Dumb smartphones
Smartphones will take over in 2011. As Android and Apple come up with newer and better devices, the older ones will become cheaper and therefore will become available to the masses.

Obviously marketers should be very excited about this. However, new smartphone users will not be as engaged and active as the early adopters were.

“The good news is that thanks to customer education and the convenience that these devices offer, even dumb smartphone users will consume more mobile media than ever before and will have incremental usage of mobile data,” the Forrester report says.

3. Mobile fragmentation
Mobile fragmentation was a problem in 2010 and will continue to be an issue in 2011, as even more smartphones and platforms roll out.

Marketers will need to prioritize based on which platforms their target audience relies on most.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Brandel/AdKing.com's Mobile Web App platforms work across all smartphone platforms.

4. Apps versus Web
The never-ending debate on whether applications are better than the mobile Web will continue in 2011.

Forrester said that this debate is irrelevant and that it is not a question of whether to have one or the other. Marketers need to have both.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Brandel/AdKing.com's systems provide a product that presents itself as an App (iPhone, iPod-touch) and as a Mobile Website (other Smartphones).

5. Mobile to interact with the physical environment
According to Forrester, mobile will continue to prompt consumers to interact with their physical environment, whether that means scanning a bar code, using augmented reality or responding to a call to action that asks them to text in.

“Technologies such as QR codes and mobile augmented reality are already helping bridge the real and digital worlds via mobile devices,” the Forrester report says. “2011 is — finally — the year that near field communication (NFC) begins to matter.

6. The deal with 4G and LTE
The industry will be surprised to see that the buzz around 4G was actually greater than the impact of these new carrier networks, per Forrester.

7. Convenience will be key
As in previous years, companies first entering the mobile space will be focused on convenience.

Acquisition will come second. Other benefits that mobile offers, which marketers will focus on, will be revenue generation and cost savings.

In the retail space, Forrester expects more companies to reach seven figures in direct mobile transactions.

8. Casual gaming
“Casual gaming will continue to lead the mobile charge for content companies,” the Forrester report says. “Forrester has already highlighted how media companies have some of the most advanced mobile strategies.”

Forrester expects mobile to represent more than 20 percent of publishers’ total online audience in 2011.

Expect new business models based on subscriptions, microtransactions, and in-application billing to expand from gaming to other content categories, such as news and music.

9. Mobile will mean a lot more than mobile phones.
The definition of mobile began to change in 2010 with the proliferation of tablet devices such Apple’s iPad, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and BlackBerry’s PlayBook.

“The focus for companies willing to tap into the growing mobile opportunities should be on moving from experimentation to the creation of a mobile business case and strategy, while recognizing that the challenges associated with fragmentation will persist.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: Turn to Brandel/AdKing.com's products to be able to offer the latest in Mobile Marketing technologies!
-Giselle Tsirulnik

2011 To Become The Year Of The Smartphone?

While 2011 has unofficially been branded many things, such as the “year of the tablet,” there’s also reason to believe that 2011 will also become the “year of the smartphone.”

When Verizon Wireless announced its Q4 earnings earlier this week it said that only 26% of its 94 million subscribers are smartphone users. Interestingly though, 75% of contract subscribers are buying smartphones, meaning overall smartphone penetration is set to grow dramatically at Verizon this year — especially with the introduction of the iPhone 4 with attractive unlimited data plans.

The same shift happening at Verizon is happening at the other big three operators as well. In total, more than 75% of Q4 2010 postpaid net subscriber additions purchased smartphones. According to Nielsen, 28% of US mobile subscribers had smartphones as of November 2010, with that number rising to 35% by the start of 2011. By the end of this year, smartphone adoption is projected to hit the all-important 50% threshold in the US, equally to roughly 150-160 million mobile subscribers.

New iPhones and iPads Will Make Retail Purchases

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is exciting stuff. We know purchases are going to be big on mobile devices, and this really drives it home.


Apple's upcoming versions of the iPhone and iPad will come equipped with the ability to make purchases, according to a published report.

Expected to be released later this year, the new devices will incorporate "near-field communication" (NFC) that allows the secure transmission of information to and from a receiver up to four inches away, consultants told Bloomberg News.

This could provide an alternative to tap-and-go payment systems such as MasterCard's PayPass, and allow Apple to get a percentage of the sale of a wide variety of consumer goods.

Apple built a payment terminal prototype that would allow businesses to take payments from NFC-enabled iPhones and iPads, said Richard Doherty, director of consulting firm Envisioneering Group.

These terminals may be given away to retailers as part of a push to get the technology widely adopted.

Using the new iPhones and iPads, it could even be possible to pass money from one device to another.

-New York Post

Report: 6.1 Trillion Text Messages Sent in 2010

EDITOR'S NOTE - While doing research for an article, I came across this piece from late last year. My favorites are in bold.

According to a new study from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), 6.1 trillion text messages will fly through the air by the end of 2010. That means for every second that goes by, another 200,000 text messages will have changed hands.

With that many texts going back and forth, it's a little depressing to think that, according to our rough estimate, 6.0 trillion will be of the "C u l8r 2nite" variety, but that's a rant deserving of its own post. Getting back to ITU's figures, the firm says that 90 percent of the world's population now own a mobile phone, and by the end of 2010, there will be 5.3 billion mobile phone subscriptions.

ITU counted over 940 million 3G subscriptions around the world, compared to 72 million back in 2006.

Originally Posted 10/20/2010 by Paul Lilly

Google focusing on LOCAL markets

EDITOR'S NOTE: Here is further proof that local marketing is hotter than ever and growing! Eighty percent of shopping happens within five miles of where a consumer lives, so why not build your local market! Offer individual BizApps to your advertisers, or group them all on a commonly-themed App4Ads. See AdKing.com for more details.

In December Groupon turned its nose up at a $6 billion dollar offer from Google. So, according to report from mashable.com, Google will simply start a rival service. The service will be called “Google Offers” and will attempt to offer the same type of service that Groupon offers. According to the aforementioned report, “Google is communicating with small businesses to enlist their support and participation in a test of a pre-paid offers/vouchers program. This initiative is part of an ongoing effort at Google to make new products, such as the recent Offer Ads beta, that connect businesses with customers in new ways.”

All this comes as the worlds largest ad broker and search provider has named co-founder Larry Page the new CEO. Connecting with smaller businesses has been a real focus for much of the online industry. Google Offers will like present a major challenge to the usual modus operandi of web-based companies because it will require having small office in a variety of cities and towns where sales people will have to leave their keys boards and make business connections with small companies far and wide.

One of mashable.com’s sources sent a fact sheet straight from the Googleplex about the company’s new group buying service. “Google Offers is a new product to help potential customers and clientele find great deals in their area through a daily email,” the fact sheet says. Launching such a service marks a serious shift in the power of the Internet to move to a more local level of service. For the first decade of it existence, the lure of online culture and commerce has been the grandiosity of the enterprise that has fascinated and driven sales (the world at your fingertips). Now, it seems, a shift is taking place to harness the communicative power of the Internet for more closely related groups, be they geographically related, socially related, or interest related.

-Sarah Novotny, via Adotas

Groupon Sets Record With Latest Mobile Coupon Deal; Sells 70,000 Burgers In 72 Hours

EDITOR'S NOTE: Brandel's President Benjamin DeLeon could see this trend from miles away. He registered the domain mobcoupon.com in 2004. Visit AdKing.com to find out more about our mobile advertising systems that are a perfect match for mobile coupons!

Group buying mega-site Groupon never ceases to amaze, as one of its latest mobile coupon deals has shattered records and turned even more focus to the power of mobile coupons.

In what’s nothing short of an amazing campaign, Groupon announced recently that a recent Groupon for a fast food restaurant in Hong Kong helped sell over 70,000 hamburgers in less than 72 hours — 40,000 of which were sold in the first 24 hours following the initial offer.

The restaurant is called “Triple O’s,” and the original offer was this: ”spend $25 on food and drink and get another $25 for free.” The offer was facilitated almost completely via mobile redemption and was so successful that it now resides at the top of Groupon’s worldwide performance charts for “F&B Restaurant Coupons.” Results and PR like this definitely help the company as it ramps up to go public in the near future.

-Mobile Marketing Watch

Two hotels let visitors multi-task with mobile site and apps

EDITOR'S NOTE: Here is proof that SMS campaigns alone can no longer suffice. Read this case study about how the apps for Eldorado Hotel Casino and Silver Legacy Resort Casino have paid for themselves.

At the Eldorado and Silver Legacy casinos and hotels, mobile traffic doubled in 2010 while mobile revenue was up 22%.

At the Eldorado Hotel Casino and Silver Legacy Resort Casino in Reno, mobile commerce goes far beyond booking a room for the night.

Chad Hallert, director of Internet marketing and e-commerce for both hotels, thought the hotels would benefit from a mobile presence when he saw that mobile traffic to the hotels’ web sites was increasing. But mobile visitors weren’t buying or booking at the same pace as PC visitors.

“Traffic from mobile was increasing much more than revenue from mobile,” Hallert says. While mobile traffic had doubled over the past year, mobile revenue was only up about 22%, Hallert says.

The hotels launched iPhone apps and mobile sites in September. Mobile revenue growth is now keeping pace with mobile traffic growth, Hallert says, and the apps paid for themselves just 90 days after launch.

The hotel and casino is constantly adding fresh features and convenient tools to its mobile offerings, particularly its apps. Consumers can do all the basics via the apps—book a room, purchase tickets to a show and request a meeting on the property. Members of the casinos’ loyalty program also can log in and book a room using their rewards points via the company’s mobile offerings.

But the two hotels, which are connected via a mezzanine skywalk, also are leveraging the MacroView platform to add dynamic features and functions and enable visitors to interact with the apps to complete a range of tasks.

For example, Hallert and his team recently added several features to its apps to coincide with a popular charity bar crawl in an attempt to drive more bookings from the event. It offered a map, a list of participating venues, GPS functionality so friends could find each other and get directions to the next establishment, a list of after-hours parties, and links to Facebook and Twitter. Bookings for stays during the crawl rose 120% this year compared with last and close to a quarter of the bookings came directly from the app, Hallert says.

Hallert says his staff can easily update the mobile site and apps by logging into MacroView’s content management system. Additionally, XML feeds from the company’s e-commerce content management system tie into the iPhone app and mobile site enabling the hotels to update mobile channels at the same time they update the web site.

A big m-commerce goal, Hallert says, is to leverage mobile to make visitors’ stays more convenient. For example, shows are a big attraction at the Silver Legacy, but the hotel can’t afford to staff the ticket counter all day, every day. Visitors who approach the ticket counter and find it closed will encounter a sign explaining three ways they can purchase via a mobile device right then: scan a two dimensional QR code, download the hotel’s app or text a message to the hotels’ telecommunications short code. For example, a visitor might text ‘Buddy’ to 1234 to buy tickets to a Buddy Holley impersonator concert.

Visitors can order room service through the apps, browse restaurant menus and preview shows. They can upgrade their rooms while playing slots and make dinner reservations lying poolside. The apps also show things to do around Reno and let visitors drop a pin on a map to help them remember where they parked. Customers can also unlock location-based deals depending on where they are at the resorts.

“With the web sites, we have to be sexy and glamorous,” Hallert says. “We have lots of videos and maybe 200 pages of content. With the apps, we try to find the most important things that can be helpful to visitors specifically during their stay.”

Both hotels hold many conferences and events and the app can offer special features for those visitors, too. Event attendees can access password-protected content available only to registered attendees such as schedules, programs and speaker bios—eliminating the need to carry around books and brochures.

While mobile traffic was increasing, Hallert says he was at first uncertain if the hotels’ middle-aged demographic of visitors in their late 30s to early 50s would actually use and buy through the mobile apps and site. “Places like Las Vegas and Los Angeles were doing well with mobile,” he says, “but other resorts with similar customers to ours, like ones in Atlantic City, were getting mixed results.”

However, that uncertainty is gone. “Mobile,” he says, “is picking up steam each and every month.”
-Katie Deatsch

Mobile is key for brands to achieve message convergence

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article really drives home the fact the consumer is driving the interaction of marketing on their mobile phones. Offer businesses in your area the opportunity to include mobility in their marketing messages by becoming a Publisher of Apps/Mobile Web/SMS in your area. Visit AdKing.com for info on White-Label (Private Label) customization of our Mobile Advertising Systems.

Message convergence is the answer to the problems caused by the proliferation of devices and messaging channels, and mobile is the glue connecting it all, according to a report by The Relevancy Group and Message Systems.

Device convergence accompanied by a heightened sense of consumer empowerment has underscored brands need for message convergence. But achieving the promise of message convergence is about more than the technology—systemic changes are needed for companies to make best use of technology in enhancing the quality of their customer interactions.

“Companies must begin to operationally change the way they communicate with customers, as most are still mired in silos, measurement across channels is not aligned and the timing of message execution not coordinated,” said David Daniels, CEO of the Relevancy Group, Spring Lake, NJ.

“Brands must think through the value proposition and content of their messaging, as well as how they measure how consumers are responding to calls-to-action in mobile channels versus emails read on PCs,” he said.

“Message convergence means customer-centric communication is paramount.”

Unified messaging
Consumers see the enterprise as one brand, because they are able to access messages via various channels. They always have their mobile device, and they see each brand as a single entity, no matter where they read its messaging.

In the mobile arena, Mr. Daniels said that he is not seeing too many companies leveraging mobile as an opt-in tool or as a way to further their email communications.

While breaking alerts' localized calls-to-action lend themselves more to mobile, and white papers may lend themselves more to email promotion and online ads, savvy use of all channels helps brands achieve a sum that it greater than the individual parts.

“For many brands, there is not necessarily a tie-in between the various media,” Mr. Daniels said. “If I’m not deploying those messages holistically across all channels, I’m not sure which channel deserves credit for driving those clicks and that interaction, and which channel is the best way to communicate with that consumer in a personalized manner.

“With message convergence, brands must adapt their content and style, as well as how they are formatting their messages, so that it is optimized regardless of channel,” he said. “It is also important to get to the point immediately.

“People are triaging their email accounts on mobile devices, so brands must figure out which channels and messages are resonating best with consumers.”

Changed consumer communication behavior
Consumers have been presented with an increasing number of channel communication and device choices that have further amplified their desire for instant gratification.

The ability of consumers to multi-task throughout their time-starved day has heightened their attention deficit disorder towards marketing and increased their desire for efficiency.

Further, their ability to bring together messages of different types—email, SMS, MMS, IM, social—onto a tethered or mobile portal, or through a singular device or application has created the mystique of message convergence for consumers.

“We’re looking at fundamental changes in the way that consumers communicate,” said Dave Lewis, chief marketing officer of Message Systems, San Francisco. “It’s not just a matter of the devices they’re using, or that their inboxes may be unified, but the very nature of communication is changing digitally—individualized, real-time, multichannel and ultimately converged.

“Enterprises are seriously lagging behind these changes in consumers’ communication behavior, and they fundamentally need to respond in a meaningful way in order to stay connected,” he said.

“We see message convergence as an essential strategy, something that the industry really needs to come to grips with, as it is the only way to stay connected with customers wherever they are.”

Mr. Lewis said that it is a jarring juxtaposition to look at consumer behavior compared to how enterprises are currently deploying their communication tactics.

Many brands separate channels within business units, which fosters a fragmented view of the customer and a fragmented response in terms of communication.

Conversations may be initiated in email, flow into SMS or IM, then back into email or to the Web to facilitate a transaction.

Whatever the messaging path, brands have to figure out how to communicate with consumers across channels, as consumers are constantly moving from one channel to another.

“There has to be a fundamental change in how enterprises manage communications,” Mr. Lewis said. “They have to think in terms of managing communication flow across channels—they need to foster cooperation and coordination between channels, rather than competition between channels.

“It boils down to knowing your customer, which is easy to say, but hard to actually achieve,” he said. “So many times you see the data scattered all over the enterprise—you need to be able to link it together."

Mr. Lewis said it is important that enterprises realize that there is significant risk to not responding to these trends.

Brands may actually lose access to their customers and lose the ability to stay connected with them across channels and follow them across these channels, which has serious bottom-line implications

“Message convergence is not an optional strategy—it is the only viable strategy for enterprises to stay connected with their customers,” Mr. Lewis said. “Those that do, stand to gain great market share, and those that do not, will suffer the consequences.”

-Dan Butcher

How will Verizon's iPhone change the mobile game?

Now that Apple’s iPhone is officially coming to Verizon Wireless, the entire mobile ecosystem will feel the ripple effects — from rival carriers and device manufactuers to content providers and marketers.

When the iPhone 4 becomes available on the Verizon Wireless network beginning Feb. 10, the desirability of handsets based on Google’s Android operating system will be tested, and Reseach In Motion’s BlackBerry devices are sure to take a hit. However, if it means consumers increase their usage of the mobile Web and applications, it will mean more downloads for content producers and more impressions for advertisers.

“It is a growth opportunity for Apple, giving it access to a major new market opportunity, a whole new set of demographics for the iPhone and the applications on the iOS platform,” said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis and consumer technology at the NPD Group, New York. “That represents more potential advertising revenue and the potential for more app sales.”

Verizon Wireless is the No. 1 carrier in the United States based on the number of subscribers, many of whom will switch to the iPhone once their contract is up.

That will mean more downloads of iPhone applications of all types, from ad-supported and freemium to pay-per-download and branded.

Additionally this will lead to more eyeballs for Apple's iAd network, which could help it compete more effectively against Google's AdMob and the various independent mobile ad networks.

The Verizon iPhone increases iAd's reach, which will in turn make it more appealing for brands and agencies.

While Apple is the biggest winner here, since iPhone users tend to consume more mobile content of all kinds, surf the mobile Web more and be more comfortable with mobile payments, the Verizon iPhone should benefit a host of players in the mobile marketing and commerce ecosystems.

...Many are speculating about the effect that the Verizon iPhone will have on competing carriers, especially AT&T. Handset manufacturers and operating systems, especially Android, are in danger.

Charles Golvin, wireless analyst at Forrester Research, said in a report that Verizon’s strong reputation for network quality will alter the calculus for many consumers and win the company several million new subscribers. Other analysts issued similar projections.

“The Verizon iPhone will attract some customers from other carriers, particularly AT&T, but most of the sales will be existing Verizon customers,” Mr. Rubin said. “Android continues to be important to Verizon and other carriers—almost every handset announced at CES was Android-based, including those that will be compatible with Verizon’s 4G LTE network.

“To help compensate for the loss of its exclusivity agreement with Apple, AT&T will be adding a dozen Android devices before the end of this year,” he said. “There is a market share expansion opportunity for iPhone, but we will continue to see a lot of momentum for Android.”

Mr. Rubin does predict some loss of Android share at Verizon. Even though Android’s share has been growing at AT&T, it has achieved very limited gains against the iPhone.

Verizon has a stronger Android lineup than AT&T, but Mr. Rubin believes that the iPhone competes very well with Android.

“Traditionally when Android has grown, it has done so at the expense of RIM, another company that may get squeezed in this transition,” Mr. Rubin said. “AT&T can continue to improve their network.

Noah Elkin, principal analyst at eMarketer, New York, expects the overall smartphone market to grow significantly, especially as Android and Apple devices spread to more carrier networks.

There were 60.2 million smartphone users in the United States in 2010, and by the end of 2011, that number will grow 21.9 percent to 73.3 million smartphone users, according to eMarketer.

Apple's iOS platform currently accounts for 25 percent of total smartphone subscriptions in the U.S., compared to a 26 percent share for Google's Android platform and 33.5 percent for RIM’s BlackBerry, according to Jan. 6 data from comScore.

Mr. Elkin said that even as Android draws ahead of Apple's iOS in the smartphone race, the iPhone remains the standard-bearer for the category—the outright leader in mindshare if not necessarily market share.

For consumers, the availability of iPhone 4 on Verizon Wireless means more choice. And that will ramp up the competition between the various carriers and device manufacturers.

“Now buyers can almost mix-and-match carriers, device vendors and smartphone platforms to address their needs and personal preferences,” said Alex Spektor, senior analyst of wireless devices strategies at Strategy Analytics, Newton, MA. “Verizon Wireless will need to differentiate its offering in order to attract outside of the anti-AT&T crowd.

A trend that some industry observers have noticed is that the iPhone appeals more to women than other smartphones do.

If a large percentage of female Verizon subscribers opt for the iPhone, that could shift the balance of power toward Apple.

“Even though Android had recently taken the lead in smartphone OS market share, Apple's purchase intent, especially among women, had always stayed high,” said Olivier Griot, principal at consulting firm Blue Rain Media, Boston.

“The arrival of the iPhone on Verizon evens out distribution for both platforms, and I expect to see iOS bounce back on top,” he said. “It will be interesting to see if Verizon's network is as robust as they have been claiming the past few years."

There are now going to be more iPhone users, who tend to drive mobile content consumption, mobile Web and application usage, as well as interaction with mobile ads.

And then there is the question of iPhone users’ notorious strain on AT&T’s network. Will the increased data load trip up Verizon Wireless as well?

“Android phones are actually even bigger data hogs than the iPhone is, so if Verizon picks up anywhere near 16 million phones this year, they will go from having the lowest smartphone penetration of the four carrier networks to the highest,” said Carl Howe, director of anywhere consumer research at Yankee Group, Boston.

For marketers, they have to target both iPhone and Android devices, as Android will continue to hold a very strong position at Verizon, per ABI Research.

This also marks the first time that the iPhone is going to storm into a market where Android is entrenched.

“Android has been used by carriers worldwide as an answer to the iPhone, and in many cases, it was a good answer—Andorid devices have all of the features you can get on the iPhone, if not more,” Mr. Morgan said. “Now the iPhone is going to come to Verizon, and it will sell as it always has, because they don’t sell on features, it is an emotive sell—this device will make you happy.

“With a feature-to-feature comparison, the iPhone might not look so great,” he said. “Android is going to expand into lower-cost phones, while Apple will stay at the premium market—it will trade market share for margin, and if you look at the financials, it has been a pretty good trade.

“Android has seen huge growth in the market, especially in the second half of 2010, and a lot of that is due to it being on multiple carriers from multiple device manufacturers,” said Krishna Subramanian, cofounder of Mobclix, San Francisco. “It has reach, hence a lot of the marketing dollars have targeted that platform because it reaches a wider audience.

“Now that iPhone is available on Verizon as well, will Verizon customers grab an Android phone, or are they more likely to grab an iPhone?” he said. “Developers could very well start focusing more on iPhone, and Android will take a hit as the iPhone continues to grow.

“Marketers will continue to spend dollars as long as there are users, and with Apple devices on multiple carriers, advertisers want to reach that iPhone demographic, and now they can do it in more than one place, and there will be even more users.”

-Dan Butcher

The future of mobile shopping

EDITOR'S NOTE: Although the focus in this article is mobile shopping alone, it brings up several important points to be considered in this age of smartphones. Number one, the fact that mobile and shopping coexist as a phrase is one of them. Second, this is evidence that shopping on a mobile phone is such a harbinger of greater things to come. And although not everyone is shopping yet, they are buying and using their smartphones. The home screen of the smartphone is the most important real estate going today. It is all about engaging consumers with their mobile phones. AdKing's latest BizApp Creator lets publishers across the country offer advertisers their own iPhone App/Mobile Website. See our website for details.

The traditional path to purchase is dead, according to a senior executive at Whirlpool Corp. speaking on a panel yesterday at the National Retail Federation’s 100th Annual Convention & Expo.

Instead, there are many paths to purchase, said Arunabh Das Sharma, senior director at Whirlpool and Value Brands.

“People plan and shop differently and mobile is pushing this even further,” Mr. Das Sharma said. “Mobile shopping is spontaneous, fluid and iterative.

“People are shopping in ways and places they never did before,” he said. “The shoppers’ journey isn’t as predictable, linear or straightforward as it used to be.”

Insights from a new Arc Worldwide study confirmed the evolution of mobile shopping behavior. One of the key findings was that there was no single mobile consumer for marketers to identify and reach, but light shoppers and heavy shoppers.

“Unfortunately for marketers looking for the single silver bullet, there’s no really single mobile shopper,” said Bill Rosen, North America president and chief creative officer of Arc Worldwide.

Leading the list of findings from the Arc Worldwide study was the indication that there are different routes to purchase.

>>The implication is that marketers and retailers should give consumers the access they want.

>> 50 percent of all mobile phone users are mobile shoppers

>>10 percent of heavy mobile shoppers is driving a majority most of the mobile shopping activity volume.

Heavies, as Arc Worldwide calls them, love their phone. They share photos, download music, check the news and are into shopping at home, on a computer or in-store.

“And they’re really into mobile shopping,” Mr. Rosen said.

-Mickey Alam Khan

More than 7 trillion SMS messages will be sent in 2011

EDITOR'S NOTE: You have to admit, text message marketing was what first put Mobile on the map. But Brandel is moving beyond just plain texting and now offers a system that will allow Advertisers to create individual Apps/Mobile Websites for their advertising clients. Use your Private-Labeled system to reach out to local advertisers and offer the best mobile advertising on the market...Apps! Click here for more info!

A [recent] study...finds that consumers worldwide will send more than 7 trillion SMS messages in 2011, indicating a huge opportunity for marketers.

The study found that messaging is more prevalent among younger subscribers, and as they replace older subscribers, messaging will get a further boost. According to ABI, messaging includes four types of communication: SMS, MMS, mobile email and instant messaging.

“The key finding is the astounding number of SMS that gets sent annually,” said Neil Strother, practice director at ABI Research, Oyster Bay, NY. “Trillions of messages are sent across billions of mobile phones.

“It is the key communication tool of the modern era,” he said. “It is a great place for marketers to communicate with consumers.

“Marketers get consumers to spark the conversation via messages based on a trigger or keyword. With SMS, you can connect the consumer to other media such as a video.”

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies.

SMS is increasingly regarded as something of a commodity by users due to falling delivery costs and high competition.

When these trends towards commoditization are combined with the wider adoption of mobile email and IM services, the revenue proportion of SMS and MMS against the market total is expected to decline, per ABI.

Due to low PC penetration in emerging regions, for many consumers across Latin America, Africa and south Asia, mobile devices will be the primary access point for email.

ABI found that the rate of mobile phone adoption will gradually decline over the next five years, and growth in number of new customers starting to use messaging will likewise slow gradually.

The future of mobile messaging will increasingly be in unified toolkits that mash up and converge text and multimedia messages, IM chats, emails and voicemails.

The fact that consumers are increasingly comfortable communicating via SMS means that brands could potentially use the channel to speak with them.

Already brands are building databases of mobile users and sending them news and information updates, as well as coupons.

With the expected growth in SMS for 2011, more brands will likely jump on the SMS marketing bandwagon.

-Giselle Tsirulnik