Study Shows Double Digit Growth of Local Mobile Usage, Unlocking Access to Younger, Wealthier, On-the-Go Consumers

“A US report published today by Comscore and the Yellow Pages association has shown that Consumers looking for local businesses are increasingly turning to their mobile devices to access Internet Yellow Pages and local sites, while similar local searches performed on personal computers grew at a steady but slower pace.

The number of mobile subscribers accessing business directories on a mobile phone increased 14 percent year-over-year to 17.3 million users in March 2010, extending the reach of Internet Yellow Pages beyond just the personal computer. This increase outpaced 10 percent growth in the number of mobile media users who browsed the mobile web, used applications or downloaded content during the same time period.

“Mobile offers significant opportunity, both for consumers who need convenient and reliable sources of local information on-the-go, and also for local search providers that are making this content available in new and innovative ways,” said Neg Norton, president, YPA. “Yellow Pages and other local sites that have a legacy for providing trusted local business information via print directories and Web search tools are best poised to take advantage of this phenomenally versatile and interactive media. Mobile allows them to extend Internet Yellow Pages to consumers wherever they are.”"

The greatest challenge for many traditional media organisations is that they simply do not understand how they can open the mobile channel and get it to start paying dividends. Although they are the best placed to commercialise and win big, many are simply not developing the foundation required to succeed - most seem like rabbits caught in a cars headlights, bamboozled by technology and swayed by the seeming ‘cool’ factor. For many knee jerk tactical development has usurped strategy - this will cost dear in the long term (a grave mistake as they have discovered in the fixed online environment) unless they start taking steps to rectify now. Mobile does not have to be the same as the fixed online environment.

Not surprising is the next part of the study – Mobile browsers are the most common method to access services, what is more surpising is the massively dispropotionate expenditure being directed towards the development of applications. WHY? Again I can only suggest a knee jerk reaction (see iSyndrome – why limit your slice ofthe pie?). Organisations need to be thinking about adopting a balanced approach, one that will enable them to capture users and importantly retain them in the long term. The highly fragmented approaches that many have adopted this is going to be very challenging to do in a cost effective way.    

“Apps and Mobile Browsers Clock in Growth

Mobile browser was the most common access method for users, with 10.8 million subscribers in March 2010 and 21 percent year-over-year growth. But even as the browser remained the most used mobile feature for access, apps grew at a more rapid pace with 42 percent year-over-year growth, totaling 4.1 million subscribers in March 2010.”

“Mobile Users Are Desirable Consumers

The comScore study finds that mobile media attracts a highly desirable consumer segment for advertisers. Mobile usage of business directories unlocks a younger, wealthier user base to advertisers. According to the report:

• 58 percent are 34 or younger.
• Over half have a household income in excess of $75,000.
• The number of people accessing business directories on a mobile device at least once per week increased more than 16 percent year-over-year to nearly five million in March 2010.

Mobile users also access content that is attractive for many advertisers. Mobile users who access business directories are three and half times more likely as the average mobile media user to access women’s magazine content, health information, real estate listings, and job listings via their mobile devices.

Local Search on Personal Computers

As local mobile grew double digits, local searches on personal computers saw single digit growth year-over-year. Searches on Internet Yellow Pages and portal sites increased 4 percent to 444 million in March 2010, or 5.3 billion annually. The overall universe of core web search — where users search for any kind of information on a major Internet search portal like Google or Bing — increased 8 percent to 15.4 billion searches in March 2010, or 187.3 billion annually.

Diving deeper into personal computer usage, people access Internet Yellow Pages and local online sites in a number of ways. Some visit Internet Yellow Pages sites directly by typing in the URL or with a bookmark, while others access Internet Yellow Pages through feed from other sites such as Google and Yahoo. Traffic to Internet Yellow Pages from these web search sites increased three points from the first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010, to 44 percent of visits. Direct traffic also increased over the same time period, up four points to 32 percent, while referrals from affiliate sites (advertisements, e-mail marketing, and other partner sites) decreased six points to 25 percent.

“What’s incredible about the growth in local search is that, even during a time of recession when many consumers reined in spending, the need to find a local business certainly didn’t go away,” said Norton. “Whether it is on a personal computer or a mobile device, consumers have more media choices than ever to find a product or service when they are ready to buy. Advertisers should be considering a multiplatform approach that combines a print, online, and mobile strategy designed with their target consumer in mind.”"

The oportunity is clearly there - literally staring Traditional media owners in the face - the reality is that many will simply not capitalise as they do not understand or see that mobile is very different to what has gone before. They need to get experienced players in that can help them lay down the strategic foundation and cut through the tactical distractions.

At Indigo 102 we specialising in bringing out the realities – communicate the benefits and risks – at the early stages. We work with organisations to build mobile strategies that deliver value over time and develop services that are sustainable. If we can support you to invest wisely and establish a sustainable mobile platform get in touch (martin@indigo102.com).

Internet research analyst Mary Meeker delivered a full plate of mobile and online advertising optimism Monday in the form of her 48-page Internet Trends presentation.

In the Morgan Stanley analyst’s presentation at the Conversational Marketing Summit in New York, Meeker said mobile Internet use is ramping up faster than desktop Internet use did, with Apple leading the trend with the release of the iPhone nearly three years ago.

In three years, Apple attracted 86 million users for its iPhone and iPod Touch. As a comparison, in their first three years, Netscape attracted 18 million users and AOL had 8 million users. The Japanese company NTT Docomo’s I-mode attracted 31 million users.

Mobile use will only continue to grow, Meeker predicted, with smartphone sales surpassing PC sales in 2012. And smartphone use will dominate – with mobile Internet users buying more smartphones (93 million) than basic-feature phones (90 million) by next year, she forecasted.

Full post from The Washinton Post – mobile Internet exploding

Yesterday Camerjam events hosted another great mobile service focused conference. The event titled ‘M-publishing’ focused on the future of publishing in the mobile environment.

The event opened with a great key note from the effervesent Jonathan MacDonald. Below:

As you can imagine there was a lot of talk about applications, I don’t how many times the iPhone was mentioned (a lot). I sat on a panel talking about the iPad, a core question – would the iPad market change the publishing industry? 

In short NO - publishers are the ones that will/should change the industry not a device! Why? - relying on  traditional models will simply not work in mobile the business approach and mentality needs to change, and fast. I have previously written about: Real Reasons Why Traditional Media (& publishers) Can Really (Still) Win Big In Mobile. 

Following on from yesterday there were a lot of topics covered, different approaches spoken about; native applications, web applications, paywalls, freemium, advertising… there were also some areas that were not really addressed, context (service and advertising), hybrid applications, user retention…  I felt compelled to share some thoughts. 

My advice to media owners and publishers when progressing a mobile strategy:

First of all: Mobile is a proprietary environment that is emerging and fragmented – there are NO right answers! There are methods to approaching mobile that will enable you to build a sustainable foundation and trial elements that establish the right strategic approach for your business. Having defined, delivered and successfully taken to market mass audience services in three continents there are many challenges and barriers that organisations need to understand. There are some methods that you should not use to approach the market. (See: Mobile: Why Run before you Walk…).  Start point:

MOBILE is another channel but it has very different characteristics to fixed online

• Reality of mobile – device is very personal, lifestyle orientated, user is paying (or percieves to be), no-one ever reads a manual, device is generally difficult to use (relatively poor interface)…
• Consumers when mobile – typically want something, immediacy is often critical, relevance is key, pulling information is not an issue, actionable is a pre-requisite…

MOBILE = COMMUNICATION & SOCIAL (Both natural parts of our life)

• Offer – unlikely we will find a new use for our mobiles so more than likely any service or product has to dovetail in to our existing habits and activities and offer value (or fun)  

PRESENCE = LOGICAL, RELEVANT & TRUSTABLE (The ’how’, ’why’ and ’what’ is so important) 

• Why? – Why are you interesting in mobile and why is your offer relevant to a mobile user (not just because it is a big audience!) 
• What? – What do you want a consumer to do as a result of interacting with your service
• How? - A common mistake that many make is to focus on the device or platform - iPhone, Andriod and now iPad etc. – tactics come into play as you consider execution, not from the outset.

Thinking tactically is fine if you wish to progress a niche path into the market – or develop a showcase service. If you wish to establish as strategic foundation this can be fatal. Don’t get caught up in the hype and technology. (See: ‘iSyndrome’ – Why limit your slice of the pie?) 

ENGAGEMENT = ATTRACTIVE, FUNCTIONAL & EASY TO USE (Services have to offer utility and deliver results)

• Features – Can add value or create barriers (i.e. some carriers/operators in the require applications to be individually signed if they use device features like PIM (contacts book) 
• Retention – Roadmap and adding new features/funtionality is important otherwise users will not comeback (See: Flurry of stats paints shocking picture of Application loyalty)

DISCOVERY = ACCESSIBLE, COMPATIBLE & PERFORMANT (Steps simply represent barriers) 

• Approaches – Re-directed, Leveraged, dedicated, unchartered, in-direct (each can play its role)

REPORTING = KNOWLEDGE, COMPARISON & EVOLUTION (Everything in mobile is potentially measureable) 

• Metrics - distribution, in-service activity, campaign tracking

REVENUE = RELEVANT, INFLUENCING & ACTIONABLE (Everything should firstly deliver value)

Key is to understand limiting factors – potential barriers – from the outset develop a mobile approach that can be controlled by the individual organisation and built from a consistent foundation, not one reliant on or constrained by third parties.  Get as much out in the open from the start! Think about the market – not individual devices and platforms – think about the consumer and the offer.

At Indigo 102 we specialising in bringing out the realities – communicate the benefits and risks – at the early stages. We work with organisations to build mobile strategies that deliver value over time and develop services that are sustainable. If we can support you to invest wisely and establish a sustainable mobile platform get in touch (martin@indigo102.com).

Mobile. Touch. Web

In the past 15 years technology has changed in ways that no one could have forseen. Now with the convergence of the mobile Web and touch screen technology we’re embarking on another journey into the unpredictable. However… 

A Collaborative vision

If we’re all heading in the same direction why not make use of the hive mind to prepare ourselves? We asked some leading industry thinkers what they thought. To make it easier to digest we’ve grouped these thoughts into common themes.

Take a look at what other people are thinking.

Two videos based on a great publication from Young and Rubicam – presented by Simon Silvester.

MOBILE

• Always on
• Always with you
• Always connected

The world is changing as the mobile becomes the computer.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Guest post published on mSearchGroove 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Mobile advertising is certain the hot topic at CTIA, where Mobile Web And Apps World Forum (Ajit Jaokar’s CTIA partner event) was standing room only. (Well done Ajit!) Players from across the ecosystem are anxious to explore new models to monetize inventory, apps and services. However, as I pointed out during my panel — moderated by well-known analyst and author Chetan Sharma – there’s still is a lot of mileage left in established models such as text and MMS approaches to advertising before we focus too much of our effort on the whiz-bang new ad units and creatives. In his guest contribution, Martin Wilson – MSG columnist and owner of Indigo 102, a strategic consultancy with a focus on media and mobility and a deep understanding of the local space— argues that traditional media owners also have a lot of untapped energy and assets.

***

Advertising based on location is set to be the most valuable and highly contested sectors as players including AdMob, AOL/ Third Screen Media, Jumptap, Millennial Media, and Quattro Wireless jockey for position. Who will be in the winners’ circle? So far, traditional media owners and directory publishers appear to be the laggards and not the leaders in this race – although they clearly have the capabilities mix to dominate this space. Why are they hell-bent on missing the boat? Martin Wilson argues traditional media owners and directory publishers can still be among the champions, not the casualties, provided they act fast.

Mobile advertising has come a long way in a short time. No need to ask ourselves when it finally be the “year of mobile advertising” because the recent flurry of activity tells us mobile advertising has arrived.

First, it was the milestone acquisitions – Google buying AdMob, Apple snapping up Quattro Wireless and Opera surprising us by purchasing AdMarvel. Then it was the funding – Millennial Media led by New Enterprise Associates and Glam Media led by Aeris Capital – that sealed it. Mobile advertising has been validated.

Almost overnight our attention has turned from fixed online advertising to mobile. Now mobile – a personal device that enables brands to market to an audience of one – is widely regarded as the Next Frontier companies must conquer. Little wonder that companies – including Apple, Facebook, Google, Millennial Media and Yahoo – are lining up to do just this.

The market is crowding and muddying our understanding of what matters most.

Predictably, we want to reuse our understanding of old media (online and TV, for example) to comprehend the role and importance of mobile, the new mass media. Thus, we are fixated on size and those players with high volume inventory. Unfortunately, mobile advertising is not just the same numbers game.

Take the narrow view communicated in a controversial report by U.S. research agency Interactive Data Corp (IDC). It estimated the total 2009 mobile advertising spend in the U.S. at around $290 million, a figure based on total page impressions. It calculated market share according to share of total spend and concluded Millennial Media leads the pack with 18 percent ($51 million), followed by AdMob with 14 percent ($40 million), Google with 10 percent ($28 million) and Quattro Wireless in sixth place with 7 percent ($21 million.).

It was also reported by IDC that Glam Media counts 160 million monthly visits to the sites they control or represent, resulting in some 2.5 billion page views. Does this make them a market leader?

Maybe on paper.

However, as I argue in this column, it’s not about page impressions. That is not where the battle will be fought (or won, for that matter).

RAISE YOUR GLOVES

The money is in local advertising, or more accurately advertising based on location. That’s not just my view. Google has been clear about its interest in local online mobile content – and its intention to own the space. In its fourth-quarter earnings call, Google described local mobile advertising as a “huge” opportunity and more recently at the 2010 Mobile World Congress (MWC) claimed to have made mobile its number one priority.

Interestingly, going local (delivering advertising based on location) brings with it a whole new challenge. For one, it is infinitely more difficult to deliver relevant advertising to people
(which is the way brands must deliver advertising on a personal device such as our mobile phones). The opportunity to target an individual based on location is hugely powerful, but the room for error in these brand messages is frightfully slim. Get it wrong and the advertising performance diminishes — significantly.

Put another way, local advertising can’t be a matter of hit-or-miss. Generic advertising is a “fail” and tactical, targeted advertising is – literally – spot-on.

But it sounds easier than it is. This approach – though essential – flies in the face of how we measure advertising success. Suddenly, our singular focus on numbers and quantity (high volume and market share) is irrelevant. Local means delivering quality advertising. It also requires a totally new skillset, a whole new understanding of what we mean by context and how we should deliver relevant advertising.

WHAT IS ‘LOCAL’

If you say ‘mobile’ and ‘local’ in the same sentence, two scenarios spring to mind: ‘where I am now’ and ‘where I am going to be’. But which one is it? It depends. A common mistake is to assume your current location is important, that your location at that point in time is key.

Often it is not.

Mobile is about being ‘mobile.’ It’s about roaming. Mobile location can be a related to a number of things, places nearby or places close to my final destination. Deciding what is relevant is core to the success of any service or proposition delivered via mobile. I’m amazed by the number of services that get it completely wrong.

Why? Because there is more to delivering a mobile location service (let alone location relevant mobile advertising) than knowing the location of the individual. Companies need a detailed knowledge of what is really nearby.

In the U.K. alone, there are over 30,000 recognised places or points of interest. And that’s before you take into account synonyms, postcodes and street names. Linking them together in a meaningful way is no simple task. What are the postcodes or streets in London’s West End or Soho? The taxonomy is complex. When expanding a location to deliver results the relationship between places is important to get right – otherwise the service will deliver meaningless results and fail in the consumers eyes.

With so much as stake, I wonder why companies are so willing to take risks. By adding location to the mix they think they are growing the size of their inventory. In reality they also increase their chances of failure.

Currently, mobile advertising companies work on serving relevant ads based on generic attributes such as country, mobile network, handset type, time of day or theme of the page content. Add location as an attribute and everything changes. Relevancy – potentially down to a micro level – has to be on the mark. Delivering advertising based on locations becomes a mammoth task with a very different set of management challenges.

FREEDOM OF CHOICE

Advertising is content and people will pay with their attention. The structure of the content is important, and keep in mind at all times that mobile is a ‘pull’ medium. Give the people what they want and need. Provide enough information to attract, influence and help inform the decision or action.

You also need to remember that ‘local’ at a micro level is all about offering rich content – which can be challenging to deliver and scale. At the other end of the spectrum, ‘local’ at a macro level is all about providing comprehensive content – which can be challenging to deliver with added-value and competitive differentiation. A rule that applies to both types of ‘local’ content: Content gives a service credibility, interest and value if there is a valid reason (that consumers can understand) why a particular content is shown to them at a specific point in time.

Poorly targeted content is more than a potential annoyance. For many consumers, being exposed to irrelevant content (this includes advertising) on their mobile phones represents a ‘fail’ that interrupts what they are doing and – depending on data plan – costs bandwidth and money. Get it wrong and deliver the wrong content and the consequences can be severe and instant.

Content also needs to be inclusive not exclusive. If a user wants a pizza place nearby, they mean it (!) The service should deliver them details on the restaurant nearby and not the one 15 miles away simply because that business owner paid a premium for it.

Put another way, a location-based social network service should offer people loads of places people can check-in to, and not just the ones a handful of ‘power users’ know, mark and promote. Likewise, a local guide service must have all the places of interest for a town or city, not just the well—known ones in the surrounding area.

Why do local services need to be all-inclusive?

Because the consumer is empowered. They are spoilt by choice and demand the content they want. The Long Tail taught us all that one-size-fits-all doesn’t work in entertainment content. And there is mounting evidence that the same focus on the mainstream will no longer be tolerated in location-based services.

Relevance, as I have shown, is critical in content services.

The consumer’s perception of relevancy is enhanced when:

• They are offered greater choice
• They are empowered to select from a range of options
• They are ultimately responsible for the due diligence and decision

Of course, offering a broad choice of content (in this case, location related information and location relevant advertising) requires the service provider has a stockpile of content to start.

WHAT REALLY COUNTS

Above all, a location-based service has to pass the toughest road test there is. It has to show the consumer what they know is there. Put simply, consumers judge the true accuracy and relevancy of a local service by its ability to offer breadth, choice and insight into the places and businesses they know are nearby.

If the service can pass the test, it earns consumer trust.

Thus, a shopping guide needs to list the shops nearby and not the ones across town. It needs to drill down to the hyperlocal level and present up shops in the area – even better if lists the shop they can see in the distance. Then they can feel secure knowing the service is up-to-date and mirrors the real world around them. (And isn’t that what we all expect of a service that professes to offer local information?)

The same goes for mobile advertising. A guide to city nightlife should be chock-full of bars and clubs and their promotions.

How do service providers get their hands on all this content and advertising?

They partner with companies that have it as their stock in trade.

Take the directory publisher Yell in the U.K. It boasts over 2.3 million business listings –that satisfies the requirement for basic core and structured content. Yell also has over 200,000 searchable online advertisers – that fulfils the demand for depth of differentiating content.

Surely tapping into this content (listings and advertising) is the first – and essential – step to building a strong foundation of content linked to location. What’s more, it’s shortcut to offering the wealth and breadth of content – including familiar content – that consumers have come to demand.

It seems self-evident. But some companies fail to grasp it. In the last weeks I have seen a number of services – TopTable, Grub.it, Center’d to name just a few – come to market with neither basic core and structured content nor in-depth and diffentiating content. Predictably, they were instantly knocked by consumers.

IT TAKES TWO [OR MORE]

As I have shown, the success of a service linked to location depends on the breadth and depth of content (listings and advertising) it offers. It’s content that has long been the lifeblood of directory publishers, but nowhere is it written that these giants will beat the nimble newcomers moving on their turf.

Granted, it will take time for these newcomers to learn the ropes and collect and index the location linked information core to competitive edge. However, there is little reason for more traditional media players, who sit on a stockpile of location linked content, to assume that time is on their side.

Take the case of uLocate Communications, a location services company, headquartered in the U.S.

Sensing a business opportunity it moved fact to fill the gap in the current mobile advertising environment and recently launched Where Ads, a hyperlocal and holistic ad network that pulls together local ad providers that work in other mediums, including directory services, coupons, events and other aggregation services.

Partnerships will be increasingly important. Even for the traditional players it is unlikely that they will excel alone. The recent pairing of directory publisher DexOne and Yelp in the U.S. is a testament that neither company has the critical mass and/or appeal to succeed in isolation.

The new network underlines the importance of getting the right players to the table. Strategic partnering brings a new dimension to the service offer and delivers value to the consumer. But it’s knowing whom to partner with that will decide if a service flies or fails. Picking the right partner requires knowledge and focus. It also helps if the partners we choose have a track record in local and a proven ability to generate revenue.

While the newcomers may have the ambitious mobile strategies, it’s the traditional media owners and directory publishers from the online space that have mastered the capabilities necessary to convert consumer activity (a need/desire to know what’s really nearby) into revenue.

Case in point: Pages Jaunes, the French directory publisher. In 2009 the company counted 885 million visits and online revenues of €461 million. That’s equivalent to €0.52 per visit – a staggering conversion to value. Imagine a scenario where consumers conduct the same number of searches using Google – it’s nowhere near the same conversion rate (or revenues for the advertiser, I might add).

Make no mistake: No other organisation can even potentially come close to the conversion rates and value delivered by traditional media owners and directory publishers. Their ability to create value is inextricably linked to their superior capabilities. They have infrastructure, sales teams and existing customers to target.

In the online space traditional media owners and directory publishers lost their edge to search giants such as Google and Yahoo and have been struggling to catch-up ever since. Mobile is a new game with new possibilities. It’s also a space where location linked content – and lots of it – combined with the capabilities to deliver this content when/where consumers need and appreciate it most can mean the difference between success and failure. These market conditions play in favour of traditional media players and directory publishers. Now it’s up to these companies to recognise their advantage and work with the right people/companies to evolve their businesses, embrace mobile and deliver what users demand.

THE TAKEAWAY

Context, relevance, critical mass and content quality are all key components to a successful and sustainable service in the local mobile space. Who will own this space? Hard to say. But don’t be too quick to write off the traditional media owners and directory publishers that lost the plot in online. They could make a collective and explosive comeback in mobile. Success will be achieved by the companies that see the opportunity, accelerate their efforts, focus on their core strengths and bring the people and partners on board who have mobile expertise.

Get this right and you’re more than fit for the fight ahead. 

Editor’s note: Martin’s next column will focus on how companies should evolve a digital strategy that harnesses mobile to complement existing digital services and thus generate more value. As he shows us: in digital, the outcome can be worth more than the sum of the parts.

Martin Wilson has been involved in digital media for over 14 years, during which time he gained a wealth of experience in the fixed line and mobile Internet. In January 2008, Martin established Indigo 102, an independent consultancy, to assist organisations (including digital advertising agencies, directory publishers, media owners and online service providers) take their brands – and value propositions – mobile. In this role Martin has supported the development and launch of mass market mobile services across three continents. You can contact Martin directly (martin@indigo102.com) and follow on Twitter (@indigo102).

This week the Carnival of the Mobilists #214 – the weekly line-up of the best blogs and bloggers on all things mobile – comes to us via Andy Favell at mobiThinking.

It is fascinating to watch how the digital revolution; and now mobile and m-commerce, impacts different sectors, take gaming, where the business has struck gold, while in publishing, the book people can’t be sure if they’re all going to live happily ever after.

• First to publishing: as newcomer to the Carnival, Peta Andersen, of literary blog ILBNH, considers mobile’s impact on the book world, as Penguin examines how people might read books on tablet computers, such as Apple’s new iPad.
• Next to casinos (which, together with all gaming companies, are getting into mobile in a big way) as Mobyaffiliates’ James Coops (also of MJelly fame) has posted an information-packed guide to affiliate marketing and the mobile casino sector.
• If health is your thing, then the 3G Doctor, David Doherty, has provided an extensive clinic of everything mHealth related from Mobile World Congress, as he points out that this year was the first time MWC has given mHealth a proper billing.
• And finally to banking, where Jose Colucci at the Mobile Strategy blog, points out that mobile banking will only succeed through partnerships with other service providers – a great opportunity to mobile tech specialists to hit the big time.

 Sticking with money matters, here are a trio of interesting posts on mobile payments.

• One of the hurdles to contactless payment by mobile is the lack of devices that support Near Field Communication (NFC) in many countries, including the USA and Canada. David Eads at Mobile Strategy Partners considers the impact of NFC Stickers, as a big trial kicks off in Canada.
• Barbara Ballard at Little Springs Design provides a good backgrounder as she examines: making micropayments work.
• The interrelationship between mobile advertising and mobile payments is the subject of Raj Singh’s blog as he ponders cloud-based payment systems (such as PayPal), payment details on the device or the possibility that paid-for content providers, such as Apple’s iTunes, might want to become the next mobile wallet.

Meet the consumer:

• This week at Communities Dominate Brands, Tomi Ahonen turns his attention to data and how much more mobile phones tell marketers about consumers than any other media.

Going mobile – two views:

•  Good news: lots of companies going mobile; bad news: lots of mobile services with no purpose or value – so concludes Indigo 102’s Martin Wilson in Why run before you walk?. Who could he be referring to? We need to know.
• A dramatic rise in mobile boarding passes in the past year has David Murphy at Mobile Marketing Magazine (in his Carnival debut) pondering whether this is the first of many stories with eye-watering percentage growth rates to come.

Are App developers getting a raw deal from App Stores?

• What developers want and why by MSearchGroove’s Peggy Anne Salz considers how App Stores can provide a better service to developers, with a feedback mechanism, more say in how apps are marketed etc… oh, and they want to make some money, please.

Sticking with the techie stuff:

• Noting that the iPad continues Apple’s tradition of releasing mobile devices that do not support Flash, Francisco Kattan offers his hypothesis on: why Steve Jobs will never put Adobe Flash on iPhone OS devices.
  Is Windows Phone 7, launched at MWC, the culmination of, or did it replace Microsoft’s long-awaited Windows Mobile 7? At Mopocket, Mordy Gilden investigates in Photon- the Windows Mobile UI that could have been.
• Ajit Jaokar of Open Gardens is researching mobile cloud computing – “Anywhere anytime secure data access” – and associated security issues. He offers a definition, resources and invites contributions.

And because no week would be complete without a piece on the Google/Apple War:

•  Cian O Sullivan of GoMo News ponders Google’s recently-awarded location-based advertising patents. (Note these patents were filed seven years ago).

There’s no best blog this week, instead here is a question for the week:

• Should a mobile handset be used for making calls? An overheard conversation in a restaurant encourages Tsahi Levent-Levi to raise the question.

Thanks to all of the mobilists for the brimming inbox of excellent submissions this week. Sorry to all of those who didn’t make it in this time – due to the number of submissions, we were forced to play by the rules, i.e. no blogs more than a week old and to limit the number of Apple-fan blogs.

 Mobilists old and new make sure you submit your blog (mobilists@googlemail.com) for Carnival #215 hosted at MJelly.

If you missed it please also see Carnival #213 over at WIP.

The DUST has settled from this 2010’s mighty industry event – Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona – yet a FRENETIC interest in EVERYTHING mobile remains. Mobile the HOT topic and a MUST have.

For many ORGANISATIONS it almost seems that if mobile is not on the AGENDA someone is going to be held RESPONSIBLE. The result we are seeing a STREAM of services launching – many with no real PURPOSE, offering no real VALUE.

Rather than ADDING to the ecosystem they are actually potentially causing DAMAGE. They are turning consumers AWAY and WASTING large sums of money in the process. The low RETENTION levels amongst users of applications and services [reported by Flurry analytics] testament.

ORGANISATIONS need to understand that mobile is VERY different. The DEVICE; personal, a communication medium, lifestyle orientated….CONSUMER; perceives to be paying, never reads a manual, typically wants something, patience and tolerance is far less.

STRATEGY needs to be returned to the forefront. Forget the COOL, the PLATFORM, the TECHNOLOGY, the DEVICE – they come later, at the point of EXECUTION. The important part is to get the OFFER, the consumer PROPOSITION right FIRST.

It APPEARS many organisations have be SUBSUMED by the technology and are SUFFERING as a result. For many they NEED to get SPECIALISTS in to help understand the channel and HOW they can deliver VALUE. To capitalise in the FIXED-ONLINE environment most have developed SPECIALIST teams – mobile should be NO different.

Mobile has the potential to be a far BIGGER opportunity for many organisations than the fixed-online environment REPRESENTS, even today. For those that WANT to succeed they should SEEK support from those that really UNDERSTAND the channel.

Image from from Cobrasoft at Stock.xchng

Good review from Strand Consult on MWC 2010.

Once again over 49,000 people with a unique relationship to the mobile industry were gathered in Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress. There is no doubt that the conference has been a great success – when you put that many people in such a small space, from an industry that is so dynamic, the result will be a very special energy that cannot be described, but needs to be experienced.

The Mobile World Congress has many traditions and the combination of gaining industry knowledge, the possibility of meeting colleagues from all over the world, and the social events, results in almost all participants leaving Barcelona much wiser, much more tired and with a great many opportunities to develop and expand their business.

The Leadership Summit

The leadership Summit is held each year. This is where both operators and politicians meet and talk about the challenges within the industry. This year there was a great deal of focus on the Telco industry and how the industry can help the environment. One thing that was debated is why the industry was not visible at all at COP15 in Copenhagen? From Strand Consult’s point of view here in Copenhagen, we can only agree with the criticism.

Despite the fact that we published a number of research notes about this subject: http://www.strandreports.com/sw3722.asp and tried to get some key people within the GSMA to act before COP15, we were unsuccessful in getting the industry to participate at COP15. It is really embarrassing that the one industry in the whole world that can help the environment the most was totally invisible at COP15.

We hope that the GSMA has learned something from this and that they will in the future use more energy on making political leaders aware about the fact that the Telco industry is the industry that can help the environment the most – we have the key to solving many of the world’s problems.

A year with many exciting product announcements – and then there was Nokia…

Every year many exciting new products are announced and 2010 was no exception. We saw many new devices, new OS’s, lots of new services and a wide selection of news about more less advanced hardware.

One company that disappointed this year was Nokia. Not only did they choose to move their chaotic press meeting to ONCE the Institute for the Blind, their event was split into two parts; the launch of Meego and a repetition of the many product announcements from Nokia during the past year.

By launching Meego in cooperation with Intel, it appears that Nokia is trying to create increased volume for their Linux platform and QT – their service platform. One could say that Nokia wants to function on many devices with the same platform, so it needs to be possible to develop services that function across these platforms.

There is nothing wrong with Nokia’s strategy. They have understood the only way to beat Microsoft, Google and Apple is to do it through volume – get the platform to more devices, “However, they have not realized that it’s not about getting on many platforms, it’s about making something the consumer likes. Bees don’t head for the biggest garden; they head for the most beautiful flowers”

Looking through the other announcements from Nokia during the MWC, the biggest news was that Nokia actually had almost nothing to announce. When you take into consideration the size and position of Nokia in this industry and then take a look at how they handled MWC 2010, the word that springs to mind is embarrassing. It is impressive that Nokia had the guts to make such a spectacle of themselves in front of that many industry employees – 2010 was the year when Nokia lost a great deal of their street respect.

Some people would claim that despite the fact that Nokia will sell 550 million phones in 2010, they are in fact in the middle of a deep crisis – not a financial crisis, but a management crisis. A wise man asked me what it would take to get Nokia back on track and my answer was that Nokia needs a man like Tom Ford – someone who is not Finnish. Perhaps many of you do not know Tom Ford: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Ford#Gucci_creative_director_.281994.E2.80.932004.29

Tom Ford was employed in 1994 to revitalise Gucci and was so successful that their revenue increased by 90% in just the first year.

Just like the fashion industry, Nokia needs people that can sell tickets like Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, Steve Ballmer etc.

The conference – the path to knowledge, entertainment and…

The speakers at this year’s conference once again ranged from very exciting to rather boring. On the whole, most people could learn a great deal from the conference, but some of the speakers ought to have checked their predecessors’ presentations before addressing this year’s almost 4000 participants.

This year, Vodafone’s CEO Vittorio Colao spoke, replacing Arun Sarin who spoke 2 years ago. Strand Consult is well-known for stating our opinion and we were probably a little tough on Arun Sarin 3 years ago when we accused him of not being competent enough to run Vodafone. http://www.strandreports.com/sw2513.asp. On the other hand we could see that he was not here this year and someone else was on the podium. Like his predecessor, Vittorio Colao did not speak the truth about what Vodafone should really do, but instead said what he believed the stock market would like to hear about Vodafone’s plans. It is amazing how many people in this industry are focused on stating what they believe the financial analysts would like to hear, rather than creating results that would please their shareholders. Vittorio Colao’s presentation was fine, but it didn’t touch on the massive challenges that Vodafone is currently facing in a number of countries including the UK, Germany, India, Spain etc etc.

We also heard Ben Verwaayen, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent. He was one of many that complained about the absence of the industry at COP15. He gave a fine presentation, but also appeared to be a man in charge of a market player that is at the top of the list of companies that ought to consolidate. At the same time he is boss of the company that is finding it difficult to get an American and French organisation to converge. In our opinion, ALU is a company with many engaged and competent employees, but at the same time a company who most probably are their own largest competitor.

The presentation from Mike Lazaridis from RIM in Canada was one of the presentations that should not have been on the programme. There is no doubt that RIM is doing well, but Mike Lazaridis’ presentation was so US-centric that it was embarrassing. The man on the podium knew a great deal about the North American market, but clearly documented that his knowledge about the rest of the world’s 4 billion mobile customers is very limited. We believe that this attitude is probably the reason why Blackberry is having difficulty on a number of markets in amongst other places Europe.

One of the recurring speakers at the conference is Rob Conway. Last year he focused on the universal charger, but this year his focus moved away from the environment and over to education with the slogan “One goal education for all”. There is no doubt that this goal is important, on the other hand we have difficulty seeing how the mobile industry can contribute in this area apart from being charitable in selected countries. We do not believe that M-learning will solve the current global problem that many children do not learn to read, write and add and subtract.

Education is handled by building schools, having teachers that can teach and ensuring parents have the ability and willingness to send their children to school to learn. We have difficulty understanding how mobile telephones and M-learning can solve the massive problems that many countries have in this area and we believe the mobile industry can primarily help by sponsoring projects and by helping draw attention to a very large problem.

At the same time it was fantastic seeing her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan come and speak of her visions regarding http://www.join1goal.org . There is no doubt that Queen Rania  Al Abdullah really wants to push things forward, her passion and engagement could be felt right at the back of the hall. On the other hand there is a certain risk that she will end up being the exponent of the GSMA’s share of a campaign that will not reach much further than to a press release during MWC. We sincerely hope that the GSMA’s share in ”One goal Education for all ”   bears fruit for those that currently do not have access to basic education around the world.

This year’s best presentation – indeed one of the best presentations in many years – was from Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt, who together with a number of his employees elegantly and humbly told a bit about Google’s involvement in the mobile industry. This message could be divided into three parts, mobile first, Google is the mobile operator’s best friend and Google’s many initiatives will result in operators having many future business opportunities.

Strand Consult is one of the companies that have a slightly sceptical view regarding Google. We believe that Google has its own agenda regarding the broadband market – which is to ensure that as many people as possible invest as much money as possible in broadband, whereby competition will become so tough that prices become extremely low. Simply put, we believe that Google would prefer that operators are dumb pipes that only deliver connectivity to their customers.

Again this year, John Strand asked the questions that are in many people’s minds, but that few actually ask when facing an industry leader like Eric Schmidt; whether Google would prefer operators to be dumb pipes and whether Google is willing to invest in infrastructure? Eric Schmidt deserves respect for holding his own in the middle of the lion’s den and answering these questions. He answered that on the one hand Google did not want to interfere in the operator’s business models, but that they did not perceive operators as dumb pipes and that Google does not want to invest in infrastructure.

Some may say that those answers were predictable, on the other hand there was no doubt that Google has a very clear strategy and that anybody who thinks that Google will invest in infrastructure is not naïve – he is stupid. You can see Eric Schmidt’s presentation here: http://www.mobileworldlive.com/?login=1&ret=/tv.asp?id=183 and decide for yourself what Google thinks about those that are currently making enormous investments in our society.

The presentation by Ho Soo Lee from Samsung was exciting. You have to respect a telephone manufacturer that sells 220 million phones a year and there is no doubt that Bada is a dark horse on the Smartphone market. The fact that Samsung sells many mobile phones and has a good platform means that it is up to Samsung themselves to decide how successful Bada will become on the Smartphone market.

Nokia’s dream of Meego running on many platforms is fine, on the other hand Samsung already manufacturers many devices including TVs, PCs, mobiles and even fridges. If future devices are going to run on the same platform, then Samsung and Sony are in a significantly stronger starting position than Nokia.

 The war over the mobile operating system

At the MWC, many people were talking about the OS war. Here at Strand Consult we do not believe there is an OS war, not least because the Smartphone market is only 15% of the total handset market. All we are currently seeing is how the price of hardware in mobile phones has been decreasing, which it will continue to do. In practice this means that you can produce a Smartphone for around 100 USD. The result is the market for mobile phones with advanced operating systems is exploding – but not due to an increased customer demand for Smartphone’s, but because the handset manufacturers are shipping inexpensive phones with an OS replacement.

Nokia is replacing series 40 with Symbian, Samsung is replacing their OS with Bada and a market player like SonyEricsson is launching X10 and X10 Mini that resembles the W995 but where the X10 Mini runs the Android platform. This is resulting in that many of last year’s mobile phones that were categorised as feature phones, will be Smartphone’s next year – and solely due to the handset manufacturers’ OS replacement.

Many market players want to have the dominating OS, but right now the deciding factor is who has the greatest distribution power. This will result in either the company with the largest volume from their own production (Nokia, Apple and Samsung) or the company with most partners (Android and Windows Mobile) winning in the long term.

But right now there is only one winner – and that is the consumer – because none of the market players (except Nokia) are large enough to reach anything close to a dominating position. In the long term there will most probably be two dominating OS, perhaps Symbian, possibly Android, or someone completely different. We believe we will see a fragmented market with 10-12 OS running on the many devices being sold around the world.

On the services side there was a great deal of talk about Apps and we can only refer to our research note about App Stores www.strandreports.com/sw3729.asp. We believe that this market is far more complex and not just about the number of Apps available, but about having the correct services in demand by customers. This was one of the central subjects in Hugh Bradlow from Telstra’s presentation and it was refreshing to hear a man that viewed operators as a shopping centre and thereby using the comparison that Strand Consult has been using for many years when describing how we believe mobile operators should do business in the future.

During his presentation, Hugh Bradlow touched on the many other challenges we are facing, including the challenges in connection with ensuring standardisation of handset APIs, which will have a central role on the future services market. There is no doubt that Telstra is focused on the more complex real world, than the world that many simply describe as a “war” between a number of OS and some App Stores.

 The conferences many presentations showed that the future handset and services market is far more complex than often described by the media. Just the significance of OneAPI which we described in our report http://www.strandreports.com/sw4045.asp requires a great deal of attention from the whole industry and service providers during the coming years.

The GSMA announced that 24 operators will cooperate on a wholesale model for Apps. The problem is that they could not announce when they would actually do this or what business model they would use. In our experience this looks very similar to the many press releases and we have seen through the years that never get past the drawing board. We can’t help remembering http://www.omtp.org, that was launched in 2004 and that never became the success predicted by many at the time.

Mobile broadband – higher speeds and lower prices

The mobile broadband market is exploding and it is not just the number of customers that is exploding, but also the connection speed they are being offered. This year Huawei demonstrated their 600 Mb mobile broadband and Ericsson demonstrated 1 GB. These are of course laboratory experiments using LTE, but do indicate the direction of the mobile broadband market.

There was a great deal of focus at the conference on the many new network devices that function via mobile operators, but unfortunately too little focus on the significance of these devices for operators if the radio transmitter in some of these devices is the same quality as in the iPhone. We believe one of the largest challenges that operators face is that there will be numerous new types of devices on the market in the future built into machines and gadgets, and that there is a significant risk that operators will experience large network problems if the radio malfunctions in even a small number of these devices.

There was also some talk about femto cells (UMA is dead) and many of the market players in the femto cell area now admit that femto cells is not something you give to all broadband customers, but rather a tool that can help solve certain types of indoor courage problems in selected areas. The findings that emerged are the same as the findings we published in our report about the mobile broadband market http://www.strandreports.com/sw3293.asp.

There was unfortunately far too little focus on how to add value on top of the mobile broadband products that operators are selling at increasingly cheaper prices. Where will they find new revenue streams and what is going to create growth and help change operators from becoming dumb pipes to intelligent pipes? We believe that OneAPI is one of many answers to that question and we hope that the GSMA and the operators involved can increase the number of APIs at a faster pace than we have seen so far.

In our report http://www.strandreports.com/sw4045.asp we have described how we see the mobile world. Let’s see what happens at next years MWC – we think we will see a much greater focus on OneAPI.

The bottom line is…

All in all it has been a very exciting week in Barcelona and many of us left a little more confused than we were when we arrived – on the other hand that is why we keep coming back to the MWC. We believe that 2010 most probably will be remembered for being one of the years with the least slide-ware and most focus on the world we live in and the market our customers are a part of.

We believe that the financial crisis has made many people focus on areas with guaranteed cash flow and where a serious effort can make a difference. We hope that everyone who visited Barcelona had as much fun and excitement as we did and we would like to take this opportunity to send a special thanks to all those that hosted a number of exciting and beneficial social evening events. The MWC is not only the place to gather knowledge, but also to meet exciting people in relaxed surroundings.

The report: http://www.strandreports.dk/sw4121.asp

Welcome to the 210^th edition of the Carnival of the Mobilists. This week it is the turn of Martin Wilson from Indigo102 to provide his take on a week in mobile. 

With only a week to go until the biggest event of the mobile calendar there seems to be no shortage of goings-on in our exciting industry. A common theme this week seems to be the opinion that the key to success in mobile is going back to basics – and getting the right skills, people and partners to deliver.

Here are some of the week’s highlights – we hope you enjoy the read.

The week got off to a flyer when well known industry contributor Tomi Ahonen posted his controversial summary of Mobile market share of 2009 at Communities Dominate Brands.  Numbers were backed up in a release from Strategy Analytics, which suggested that Smartphone sales in Q4 2009 had grown 30% year-on-year to reach a record 53m units.

The gadget war seems to be firmly on, with new devices and features seemingly emerging by the hour.  A throng of announcements is due in the coming week, although Generation Y’er Emma Vernon dismisses the Apple iPad for not fulfilling the basics. Which does beg the question – how ‘Smart’ do we really need our Smartphone?

The Back to basics theme is echoed by Redweb mobile strategist Carl Martin, as he urges the industry to slow down and return to the core values of marketing. “Train up and skill-up in mobile” – is the cry from top digital dog and mobile evangelist Tom Eslinger, from Saatchi and Saatchi. In an interview with mobiThinking, Eslinger strongly advocates the need to recruit people who understand mobile as it becomes firmly placed on the agenda of the top creative agencies.

Mobile marketing is certainly going mainstream for those not on the bandwagon and over at Mobile Marketing Watch, Return on investment (ROI) and education [or a lack of] are cited as reasons for hesitancy. The opportunity is certainly there as Tomi Ahonen posts a mind boggling array of statistics in his renowned annual view of the mobile industry. Over at Mobile Ecosystem we get the announcement from the GSMA and Comscore for the Mobile Media Metrics and with it some encouraging statistics for UK mobile internet activity.

In an candid interview with industry veteran Francisco Kattan, from Alcatel Lucent, WIP’s Caroline Lewko talks about the changing shape of the mobile development and asks “Are there too many go to market options for developers?”. Kattan gives his views and demonstrates how Alcatel Lucent is firmly focused on supporting developers.

The Microsoft mobile debate, or speculation, continued to rumble the rhetorical question – ‘but do we really care? – Of course we do!  Speculation is rife and we all want to see what Microsoft is intending to do as it scrambles to recover its position in mobile.  Suddenly, in the next breath Techcrunch reports the revealing of Sony Ericsson’s Aspen and WinMo 6.5.3. Mark Bridge of The Fonecast subsequently wades in with his own X-Files style conspiracy theory.

“Location” is the topic for Ajit Jaokar of Open Gardens, who praises Nokia for going back to grass roots and believes Nokia is setting the agenda as an industry leader once again. Praise continues for Nokia as Dennis Bournique, at Wap Review, gives his views on the N900 and describes how he believes it represents the next generation of mobile browsing.

Partnerships have always been a key component of the mobile ecosystem, with the operators playing a major part. The Ad networks have largely chosen to go it alone. Mark Westling of Sigma argues that engaging operators into the advertising platform has its advantages and the potential to deliver far greater returns.

Over at MSearchGroove, leading industry commentator, Peggy Ann Salz offers a headline overview of the recent M-days event in Munich – trends from Christian Lindholm, of Fjord, mobile operators embrace ad-funded models from Kerstin Trikalitis, of Out There Media, and insight to Eastern European mobile operators and leading content owners on the problems they face and progress they have made.

Mobile is clearly already presenting some real returns.

Companies succeeding in mobile are those players that have recognised the gaps in their knowledge of new media and have brought in professionals that do (even better if these professionals are themselves digital natives with an instinctive grasp of mobile and its impact on every aspect of our daily lives). What it will take for Traditional players to succeed in The NEW NEW Media world.

Organisations need to stop thinking of mobile as a technology and understand it is a utility. The mobile device has evolved into a multifunctional tool. It is our social organiser, our information resource, our boredom filler. Basically, it supports our lives.  As a marketing medium mobile is only set to grow in value. Providers that get the basics right and forge partnerships that allow them to unlock the potential of mobile, monetise their digital assets and deliver features that add value to our lives will be well-equipped to compete against rivals and win. Guiding organisations in defining and developing a mobile presence is a core part of the work at Indigo 102.

I always suggest that the importance of the basics can never be overstated.

There is some great content in this week’s Carnival. It wasn’t easy picking this week’s best posts but there can be only one winner in each category. I’m giving the award for Best post by a Carnival newcomer to Emma Vernon for her post on how the iPad fails to excite Generation Y.  Post of the week honors go to Carl Martin at Redweb for his cry for ‘Back to basics’.

Next Monday head over to Communities Dominate Brands for the next installment of the Carnival of the Mobilists.

Images by foreversouls and from Cobrasoft at Stock.xchng