This Just In...

Marketing Daily is reporting on a Forrester Research survey that claims that the mobile device is the most used electronic device.

Duh!

I hope they didn't spend too much money figuring this out. They could have given me just half of it and I would have told them the same answer.

Location, Location, Location

Mobile Marketer Daily recently published an article entitled 7 Key Trends Mobile Marketers Need to Know. This was a review of a keynote speech by Noah Elkin, senior analyst at eMarketer New York.

Go ahead and read the article. Or I'll give you the Cole's notes version here:

1) Mobile usage has become pervasive
2) Mobile devices and platforms have experienced dramatic evolution
3) The device market is shifting in favour of smartphones, and the US is driving much of the demand
4) Increased ownership of smart devices is driving mobile internet growth
5) Communication modes are undergoing a significant shift
6) The base of mobile content users will continue to see strong growth
7) Tablets are changing the face of mobility and computing.

Mr Elkin is correct in all respects. But I believe he has missed one large trend. He speaks briefly of location as a component of #5 above. I think it is more important than that, deserving of it's own category:

8) Location is everything, and marketers are starting to utilize this feature.

Most people, when they forget their wallet at home, borrow some cash from a colleague and get through the day. When they forget their phone, they go home and get it. People simply cannot be without their phones at all times. Since it's always with them, it offers marketers a way to know where their consumers are.

Although it sounds a little 'big-brother', in reality its a good thing for marketers and consumers alike. Location, combined with permission-based marketing, is a recipe for relevancy. Consumers will never complain about privacy or intrusion when the message sent to them is both requested and relevant.

For example, if you like to shop at the Gap, and you are always on the lookout for the latest jeans, you wouldn't mind a message from the Gap when you were near one that informed you of the latest product lineup or sale. You would only get this message if you agreed to receive them in the first place, and if you changed your mind you would be able to unsubscribe and never be bothered again.

Self-selected consumer messaging plus a device that's always on and always present with the consumer equals a whole new marketing ballgame.

Google Ownes

I came across this chart on the Mobile Inc blog. It pretty much sums how to decide on which search engines are (is!) most important when developing optimization.

Mobile and the Environment

Somebody asked me the other day about how mobile activities in general, and mobile marketing activities specifically, are impacting the natural environment.

It's a good question. Certainly used and outdated electronic equipment such as phones, PDAs and other mobile devices leave an impact on our planet. And these days, it seems that any phone is out-of-date and will need replacing at least every two to three years. Canada has over 21 million cellular phones in service and replacing each of them every 2.5 years, on average, puts 8.4 million phones into the landfill every year.

However, each phone is capable of delivering literally millions of advertising impressions during it's 2.5 year life cycle. These impressions, if not available electronically, might otherwise be delivered via print media.

And it's not just advertising. It has been estimated that one Sunday edition printing of the New York Times consumes 75,000 trees. Over 90% of that paper ends up in a landfill, along with all the toxic inks that have been put on it. Those 75,000 trees, if left uncut, would filter 4.5 million pounds of pollutants from our atmosphere every year.

So by purchasing the mobile device such as an iPad, and canceling your daily newspaper subscription, you are helping the planet. And that's good for everybody.

Apple this, Apple that.

No doubt that Apple is one of the biggest players in the mobile arena. It's leadership with mobile devices is indisputable.

In January, there was the much anticipated iPad announcement, with all the usual Apple dog-and-pony show. A while later they were at it again, this time with the iPhone 4 and iOS 4. Now just yesterday, a third big announcement with, get this... new iPod Touch, new iPod Nano, New iPod Shuffle, new Apple TV and new iOS version 4.1.

Try saying that 10 times quickly.

Leading up to the big iPad announcement in January there was much anticipation, speculation and discussion. This was good for Apple. But how many times in one short year will consumers pay attention to another 'big' announcement from Apple? And even more so when the big announcement isn't a big announcement at all, as in the most recent case, where it was a series of smaller ones with no real focus.

Nobody can deny Apple is a leader. But to maintain that position, they must continue to produce what made them successful in the first place: elegant technology products that are simple to use and give 'street cred' to its consumers.

How long?

Yes it's been many months. Sorry, I was just that busy. I have a little more time now so I'm going to resume posting here. Hopefully I will share some information that will be useful to you. Stay tuned...

Reaction to Apple's iPad

The iPad has been announced. It's not an iPod Touch, and it's not a laptop. It's something in between.

So what are the reactions? Following the blogosphere in the past few days, here's some general comments that seem to be commonplace:

1) It's cool. Great show-off-to-your-friends factor.

2) No camera. Why wouldn't Apple include a camera? Mobile videoconferencing would seem an obvious application.

3) Does not support Flash. Now this is really a sticking point. Steve Jobs called the iPad the best possible web viewing experience. Except that for every web page that has a Flash header, the iPad will just display a dull grey box. How is that the best possible web viewing experience?

4) No USB connector. Yes, the iPad only has the iPhone 10 pin connector. While a USB connector should have been included, this has enabled Apple, and it's hardware developer partners, to launch a whole string of support items.

5) iPhone OS. Not OSX, or some new platform, but iPhone. So how will you work on that proposal document while on the airplane travelling to a conference.

Processing power for the iPad comes from Apples new A4 chip (unrelated to Audi). The big question in my mind is will this new chip come inside the 4G iPhone, scheduled for release this month?

The Death of the 'Smart Phone'

I recently visited a wireless store to see what was available for a basic phone. Nothing special, just talk and text. What do you think I found there?

When signing up for a 3 year plan, basic phones are available for $0. The sales guy behind the counter says he doesn't sell many of those. Most spend at least $50 for a more featured phone.

Without spending hundreds of dollars for an iPhone or a Blackberry Storm, a mere $50 spent with a new plan gets a pretty good phone.

As an example, the LG Rumour 2 is a 3G network phone, with talk, text, bluetooth capability, a colour screen, a 1.3 Megapixel camera with 2x digital zoom, MMS (multimedia message) capability, a slide-out full Qwerty keyboard, an MP3 player with headphone jack, USB-to-computer sync capability, and basic clock, alarm clock, organizer and calculator functions. Oh, plus also email capability.

While not as fully featured as a more expensive phone, this phone packs a pretty good punch for the average consumer. Just a few years ago, this phone would have been considered top-of-the-line; a smart phone from 2007.

Following this trend, we can expect a basic $50 phone two years from now to look a lot like the current top offerings from Blackberry or Apple. Essentially, ALL phones will be smart phones.

The term 'Smart Phone' will wither and die, as a moniker for differentiating certain attributes on phones will no longer be required.

Mobile Marketing in Canada

Amellie Lake, CEO of Vancouver-based Tagga Media, recently wrote about the state of mobile marketing in Canada. She suggests that Canada is very much behind the rest of the world in terms of mobile activities from marketers. This situation is strange, because Canadian mobile penetration is high, text-message usage is high and mobile browsing is high. This means that Canadians will probably experience an explosion of mobile marketing activities - likely soon, as the current economic recession appears to be winding down.

Read her full article here.

Doritos Text Messaging

A while back, I wrote about the Doritos Guru campaign. This was not specifically a mobile campaign, but I liked it so much that I wrote about it anyway.

Now, in the USA at least, Doritos is utilizing text-message based mobile marketing to help launch a new product. At least, that's what they claim. It appears to me that they are using the hype of the new product to build their mobile contact list. Something that I have recommended to all my clients.

Read the full article here.