Posted: November 10, 2008

Although most in the wireless industry thought it was inevitable, it is still significant that, according to new data from NPD Group, the iPhone has already become the top-selling handset in the United States. This achievement is all the more remarkable when you consider that Motorola’s Razr, the handset that the iPhone displaced at the top in the third quarter of 2008, has held the top spot for 3 years straight.

NPD analyst Ross Rubin called the ascension of the iPhone over the Razr “a watershed shift.”

While the mobile internet had been a feature that most consumers could live without until recently, it has clearly become such an essential tool for mobile subscribers, along with text messaging and other advanced data features, that even phones as expensive as the iPhone are selling in record numbers.

“Four of the five best-selling handsets in the third quarter were optimized for messaging and other advanced Internet features,” Rubin said.

The analyst said he discerned a growing divide in the handset market between voice-centric phones and those optimized for data and Internet usage. Fully 30% sought a device with a QWERTY keypad, up from 11% in the prior year. U.S. carriers combined now offer 50 models of smartphones, while in Europe that number is nearly 250 models.

Cellit is heeding the call for robust mobile campaigns which incorporate consumers’ new thirst for more interactive mobile experiences. While text-messaging remains the backbone of Cellit’s suite of services, new features, such as WAP sites and custom iPhone apps have been added to their repertoire to engage the consumer in ways that simply weren’t possible until smartphones and other data-enabled devices appeared.

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Posted: August 25, 2008

Advertising Perceptions, a market-research firm, recently released a study on advertiser optimism which makes one thing abundantly clear; advertisers and marketers are clearly concerned with the health of their industry and have already taken steps to weather the storm. Yet, even with the impending economic woes that advertisers have already begun to feel the effects of, there are two media categories with which advertisers seem to still have a healthy level of confidence; online and mobile.

While every category saw a decrease this year in the percentage of respondents who felt they would increase spending, online actually saw the only decrease in those who felt they would decrease spending and mobile only saw a 4% increase in those who would decrease spending, by far the two most optimistic results. Additionally, only 4% and 9% envisioned a decrease in online and mobile spending; the next closest category was Cable TV with a full 20% saying a decrease was imminent.

The results clearly point to an industry that has become much more cautious in the past few years, but has also seen online and mobile as the two areas which are the least effected by the current economic climate. When pressed for reasons for their answers, most respondents pointed to the accountability and raw metrics which can be derived from both online and mobile marketing that simply don’t exist for the other types of media.

While the level of consumer interest in print and radio has clearly declined with each year, the internet and mobile are experiencing unprecedented levels of expansion due to their immediacy and interactivity. And in the near future, mobile may emerge as an even bigger player than online as it is the pinnacle of both immediacy and interactivity, with more people having mobile phones than computers and a level of portability that even laptops cannot compete with.

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Posted: August 20, 2008

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Posted: August 6, 2008

The one feature of text-messaging I did not mention in the “Big Text” post which has created immense levels of frustration among wireless subscribers is the fact that they are charged for incoming messages as well as outgoing. This is effectively doubling the messaging revenue for the carriers while charging consumers for a service they did not initiate and, most of the time, cannot block. The carriers say that anyone who wishes to block SMS can simply call them and request the blockage; but not only is this a frustratingly complex procedure, but it results in the stoppage of all messages, not just spam.

You aren’t charged to receive a package through the mail, or an email, so why are we charged when for simply being the recipient of a text-message?

And now, two of Canada’s wireless operators are making a huge mistake in trying to implement this system where it did not previously exist. Up until now, Rogers, Telus, and Bell Mobility have only charged for outgoing messages, but Telus and Bell have recently announced that they will begin charging 15 cents per incoming message starting very soon. This has so angered their customers that both carriers face a class-action lawsuit stating that the change is an illegal breach of contract since their customers are locked in to multi-year plans.

I understand that the carriers see this as a potentially huge source of new revenue. But with the advent of all-you-can-text plans sweeping the globe, which will render per-message fees as pointless anyway, and the unheard of levels of consumer outrage that this will unleash, is this really the smartest move for the long term financial stability of their companies? I guess we will just have to wait and see.

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Posted: July 28, 2008

With the economy becoming increasingly unstable, Americans have invariably channeled their anger and frustration toward the oil companies; and with good reason. The oil companies are enjoying record profits while the price of gasoline has skyrocketed, almost doubling since 2005. And while the price of gasoline effects all levels of commerce, always trickling down to the consumer, there is another industry whose recent pricing practices are eerily similar and whose reach is just as broad as that of Big Oil; the wireless telecom operators.

Just as everyone relies on gas, be it for heat, transportation or power, cell phones have become an indispensable tool for both individuals and businesses of all sizes. And the penetration of mobile devices has assured that any significant increase in pricing will eventually affect everybody, even those who do not seemingly rely on mobile technology on a regular basis.

In the last two years, rates to send and receive text messages on all four major carriers have doubled from 10 cents to 20 cents per message, a rate of increase which actually outpaced the increase in gas prices during the same period. Similarly, AT&T recently announced that iPhone users will have to pay even more for text-messaging than they had before. The old plan included 200 text messages in the $59.99 voice and data plan, but plans for the new iPhone 3G will cost $5 extra for 200 text messages.

And just like the oil companies, this recent influx of price increases is occurring during a period of immense profitability for the carriers, especially surrounding data services such as SMS. Verizon’s data revenues grew 45.3% in the 2^nd quarter of 2008 when compared to the 2^nd quarter of 2007, and they now account for almost a quarter of all service revenues. While overall ARPU increased just 0.9%, data APRU grew an astounding 31.3%. AT&T saw an even bigger spike in data revenue growth, posting a 52% increase year over year.

And if anybody still thinks this simply came as a pleasant surprise to the innocent wireless companies, the COO of Verizon, Dennis Strigl, predicted 7 months ago that the weak economy would have little effect on the wireless business. In fact, a report by Informa Telecoms & Media has concluded that global data revenues will exceed 200 billion dollars in 2008, with revenues already reaching 49 billion in the 1^st quarter alone. And a separate report by ABI Research has concluded that SMS will remain the top revenue-generating mobile messaging service at least through 2013.

The cost to the carriers for providing and implementing text-messaging hasn’t changed during this period, and many people have estimated that this cost is almost non-existent anyway. At least the price of oil is actually rising, although the oil companies are clearly not hurting because of it. Yet, the carriers have taken a commodity which has not risen in price, and even in the face of increasing customer usage, have doubled its cost.

All of this is made even more ridiculous when you consider how much text-messaging costs in relation to other data transmitting methods. One blogger has actually figured out how the price of transmitting data via text-message compares with the price of downloading data on your ISP, or even sending a letter through the mail, which can be found here. His argument boils down to the fact that sending data through text messaging is roughly 200 times more expensive than standard mail, and 61 million times more expensive than sending through your ISP! That severely trumps any price-gouging the oil companies could ever dream of.

So the next time you get your heating bill and curse the heavens, or swear at the gas pump after filling up, perhaps you should focus some of that frustration on the wireless companies who seem to be doing the exact same thing and getting away with it with much less fanfare

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Posted: July 10, 2008

Almost three quarters of mobile phone users cite text messaging capabilities as the most important feature when purchasing a new handset, according to a consumer survey conducted by mobile solutions provider Access Systems Americas and independent research firm Amplitude Research. Given a list of 19 different mobile features and services, 73 percent of consumers cited texting as the most critical data component–cameras were second with 67 percent, followed by mobile email (63 percent) and web access (61 percent). Music (34 percent) and video (33 percent) also featured prominently in the poll. Conversely, only 0.5 percent of consumers said battery life plays a role in their phone purchase, with voice activation earning just 0.33 percent.

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Posted: June 26, 2008

In another move targeted at human beings’ increasing aversion to any sort of physical activity, Japanese wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo has begun testing a line of “wearable” gadgets which could respond to movements as delicate as eye movement.

Rolling your eyes to turn up the volume of a portable music player and tapping your fingers to turn on a DVD player are among the technologies Japan’s top mobile carrier is testing. In one version, sensors and chips inside headphones detect electrical current produced by movements of the wearer’s eyeballs.

NTT DoCoMo believes wearable control technology will be adapted for mobile devices that download music, play video games and allow users to shop online and keep up with their e-mail.

In a demonstration, researcher Hiroyuki Manabe wore a giant headset covered with wires to show how computer graphic lines in a monitor connected to the headset darted wildly whenever his eyes moved. He turned up the volume on a digital music player by rolling his eyes, and he jerked his eyes twice to the right to fast forward.

The new technology may also enable cell phone cameras to read bar codes used in Japan to get product information, download music and coupons when the user simply looks at the codes, researchers said.

Another iteration of the technology appears in a wristwatch that can detect the wearer’s thumb and forefinger tapping together to work as a remote controller for such gadgets as a DVD player.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure how tapping your fingers is any better or easier than pushing a button on a remote; and controlling all of my music with eye movements just seems like it would give me a giant headache, especially the “jerking” motion mentioned here.

Technology has always straddled the line between style and substance. There are countless gadgets whose main purpose is to entertain or impress, rather than fulfill an actual need, but this technology actually doesn’t seem to do either. It doesn’t streamline or improve a process, and I can’t imagine wearing a giant headset or flitting your eyes around wildly is going to score you many “cool” points. The only truly useful application I can think of is technological access for the disabled, but of course there was no mention of that at the demonstration.

I just hope that if this does come out, I will still have the choice of text-messaging with my fingers instead of my nose.

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Posted: June 25, 2008

Opera’s latest “State of the Mobile Web” report has revealed that almost nine times as many men use the mobile web as women. An astounding 88.1% of those surfing the mobile web are male. Conversely, SMS and even MMS do not display any significant gender differences when it comes to adoption and usage. Furthermore, the report went on to say that 64.5% of mobile web users are between the ages of 18 and 27. Text messaging may have begun as a tool for the young, but it has emerged as an essential mobile feature for those of every age group. While the mobile web remains an extremely focused medium when it comes to demographics, text-messaging has become one of the most all-encompassing communication tools, revealing no significant biases based on age, gender, race or socio-economic status. Thus, there is no better marketing tool for reaching any sort of audience, especially a more general one. If you are marketing to a 21 year old male, then you might want to consider mobile banner ads; otherwise, text-messaging remains the far superior mobile marketing tool.

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Posted: May 28, 2008

Verisign has announced record-breaking mobile messaging totals for the first quarter, and all signs point to 2008 being an unprecedented year as well. Verisign’s networks enabled more than 43 billion messages in the first three months of 2008, representing a 34% increase over Q4 2007 and a 150% increase over Q1 2007. That works out to approximately 476 million messages per day on average. 538 million messages were sent through Verisign’s networks on Valentine’s Day alone, and Verisign estimates that over 2 billion were sent on all networks worldwide for the day.

Verizon Wireless also announced a record for messaging, delivering close to 58 billion text messages in the first quarter of 2008. Its subscribers sent and received close to 20 billion text messages in the month of February alone, just eight months after the company’s first-ever 10 billion-message month.

Not to be outdone, AT&T announced that American Idol generated more than 78 million text votes this season, shattering last year’s total of 64.5 million.

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Posted: May 19, 2008

Remember when cellphones were huge, brick-like objects, with no video, mobile web, or even text-messaging? Mobile phones have certainly come a long way in the last 23 years, and this VIDEO shows just how rapid the progress of cellular technology has been.

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