When I discuss mobile technology on this site, I try to accurately portray the user metrics of mobile phone owners to share with businesses the opportunity that resides in mobile communication. Today I feel a strong urge to change it a bit.

Today I need to share the emotion that is involved in the relationship we have with our mobile devices, and to do this effectively, it needs to come from a personal level.

What does a mobile phone mean to me? You would think that people will probably lean toward a detached feeling. A device that is as essential as it is intrusive. Often it’s described as “Something that needs to make and receive phone calls”.

There’s one question that needs to be asked to fully understand the emotion, romance even, behind the relationship “people” (I’ll explain what I mean by people a bit later) have with their mobile phones.

What do I want from a mobile phone?

You will notice that I did not use the term need. My needs and wants are completely separated, yet intrinsically connected. That is the difference between the “people” I mention above, and the older generation of mobile users.

So what is it that I want so badly from a phone?

1. 1. A large display with touch screen capabilities
2.  
3. 2. Built in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Internet
4.  
5. 3. A sexy form factor
6.  
7. 4. Exclusivity – the phone need not be available to the mass market
8.  
9. 5. Multimedia capabilities with camera and video options – A place to store music, pictures and videos and play them back whenever I want on the large display in #1
10.  
11. 6. A phone that I can customize to my exact liking. That includes applications I want to install keeping me connected on my favourite social media websites, mobile banking and micropayment capabilities.
12.  
13. 7. Fast and real internet. Not some WAP sites. Browsing fully loaded websites as I would on my laptop browser. And being able to do so effectively wherever I am.
14.  
15. 8. Open, receive and send business documents. This includes Word and Excel documents, PowerPoint presentations and even PDF documents.
16.  
17. 9. Location based services. GPS. Google Maps. For when I’m lost or just to show people how cool our earth really is.
18.  
19. 10. RSS – the ability to save relevant articles to my device; to store information that I could read at a later stage and the ability to sync the entire process with a similar service on my laptop.

This is quite an extensive list, and reading through it now I notice that I did not even include the basic options like making phone calls, sending and receiving text messages and e-mail. Those are a given.

I’m not the only one madly in love with mobile phones. There are millions of us sharing exactly the same sentiment. Apple did a sensational job of poking at the soft centre of our core, exposing our vulnerability and emotions toward technology. We want more than we need. And that’s good. We learn from it. We fight with each other. We compare. We brag. We long. We live.

Do you then understand that when I give you the permission to send me information, when I download your application, when I visit your website from my coveted device, that I am in fact sharing my loyalty, showing my appreciation and love for you too?

If you, as business brand, can make it onto my mobile phone, then you Sir, have ultimately succeeded in your goal in acquiring me as a client. Client is not even the correct word. Brand Ambassador extraordinaire.

The moment you have made it onto my phone, we have become one, and I will go to the end of this world to defend your every move. Now isn’t that a nice connection to have?

There is something distinctly different between iPhone users and well…the rest of the mobile world. For one, iPhone users are decidedly more attractive than their rather unspectacular smart phone using peers. At least that is something they will have you believe. And they probably have a point.

Steve Jobs is the male sex symbol of technology companies (He made turtlenecks fashionable again…no?). Compare Steve to Microsoft’s man of mediocrity, Bill Gates, and it is probably not very difficult to fathom where Apple users get their profound sense of vanity from.

But in addition to that, you get the sense that iPhone users have a rather unwholesome affinity to their mobile phones, something they seem willing to fight till death for. It is not unlikely at any given moment to witness a war of words between Apple iPhone users and especially our Windows Mobile burdened Boondocks. And considering the inferiority complex most Windows Mobile users suffer from, it’s not a fair battle in the least.

Some of us have gone to great lengths to find applications to override the Windows Mobile operating system. There are even applications out there that simulate the Apple iPhone interface. Can you imagine the verbal abuse one would have to cop if an iPhone user recognizes your cheap attempt at twinning a unique product such as the iPhone? I mean, who does that? (I only had it on like, briefly, ok!)

According to @nealkernohan, a rather eccentric looking chap, not at all unlike the sort you would imagine using an Apple iPhone, “there is an active iPhone community and a buzz about them. People who have them are excited when they talk about them and about the apps.” Further, he reckons “other phones just cannot gain that much hype and momentum. Everybody knows Apple and knows Steve jobs. Who is Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo?” And I must admit I don’t have the faintest clue…

Despite the fact that the iPhone is the best selling phone of all times, it is unlikely that the iPhone would ever enjoy the market share of Nokia. Still, the business world seems desperate to get into its pants. Of course it is 2009, and if content is king, niche is queen and Apple is the sultry mistress. And we all know which is the most fun (wink…wink). Yet, it is still rather profound to witness the lopsided buzz that is created around this “superb” phone.

And I use the word superb very loosely. Considering that the Apple iPhone cannot send MMS messages, forward standard text messages, record videos, cut and paste, has a meager two megapixel camera and can only run applications that are specifically built for the it, superb is hardly a word I would use, yet its owners are perversely loyal to a model that doesn’t carry the grey matter, but packs the rack of your typical Girl of the Playboy Mansion.

Yet it’s the Windows Mobile owners that take the abuse, regardless of phones like the Samsung Omnia, HTC Touch Pro and the likes that can do all of that and more, but is rather nonchalantly dismissed as a competitor, simply because of the operating system.

But dismissed it should be. For a Windows Mobile driven phone is not a player in the mobile technology field, it is just too darn boring.

News just broke that Amazon released an application for the iPhone to work like their fairly popular Kindle. From a colossal smart mobility market, Amazon chooses (consciously above all) to only target the Apple iPhone user base. In essence, that grants them exclusivity, causing hype and an ever inflating ego among Apple iPhone users. And this is just one example of the enormous first-to-market benefits iPhone users have.

It is obvious that if you want to be part of the cool gang in gadgetry, an iPhone is a non-negotiable. It is the gadget of the new millennium and multi-billion-dollar companies, application vendors and garage-bound college dropouts simply salivate at serving the godlike creatures that own them.

If you’re a regular Windows Mobile smart phone user like me, get to the back of the line idiot…and wait for the good stuff. For it will come. Eventually. And while we wait, let’s marvel in silence at the functionality of the piece of equipment we hide from rest of the world.

Because…We chose functionality over cool! We chose cost effectiveness over hype! We chose mainstream over niche! And for that we’ll have to pay the price of an average eternity…

From the Communities Dominate Brand’s Blog it is shown that mobile technology now has 4 billion subscribers. Recognizing that the world has about 6.7 billion people, it means there is a mobile phone subscription now for 60% of the entire planet.

From the Mobile Active Blog, research from Informa indicates that by 2010 half of the planet’s population will have access to the Internet through a mobile device.

From a previous article of mine, where I have also quoted the Communities Dominate Brand Blog, it was shown that there are approximately 1.4 billion Internet users in the world. Compared to about 1.5 billion television sets, newspaper circulation of 480 million, one billion desktops, laptops and netbooks and roughly 1.30 billion e-mail users, one has to wonder why South African businesses still disregard mobile marketing as their primary source of return on marketing investments.

The Mobile active blog asks a very enticing question: Should you make your website mobile?

I would like to rephrase the question: Shouldn’t you make your website mobile?

If you consider the amount of smartphones (mobile phones with Internet, e-mail capacities), and the research results of Informa, together with the up and coming generation of technology users, it seems fairly obvious that the marketing times are changing.

Again, like a stuck record, the question begs why small businesses in particular refrain from adapting mobile marketing practices. Considering the substantially lower input costs, distribution cost and the proven the high returns on campaigns, mobile marketing sounds almost too good to be true.

Now, mommy used to tell you that anything that sounds too good to be true, usually is. But then again, mummy didn’t live in the digital era, did she?

The time has come for businesses to cast away their nappies, grow up, and start conducting business in a mature and intelligent manner.

You can only take a horse to the water, but you cannot make him drink. The mobile marketing society has been leading, in fact predicting, the exponential rise of mobile marketing potential for quite some time.

It is time for businesses to start drinking from the pool of wisdom reality.

I struck a rather startling epiphany on New Year’s eve when I embarked on my annual ritual of sending celebratory text messages to almost my entire contact list on my phone. It has been documented ad infinitum that South Africa boasts with one of the most impressive mobile penetration rates in the world, with roughly 90% mobile phones held among the 49 million South Africans.

I was running a hypothesis through my mind at the time and while my numbers may be profoundly inaccurate, I believe that the crux of the idea is still a viable one to document.

What struck me as devastatingly obvious is that between the three major cellular networks, Vodacom, Cell C and MTN, their collective potential to aid to social responsibility in South Africa is ridiculously easy.

Assuming that every single mobile phone owner sends at least one text message during the period from December 24 to January 01, a long shot I know (but then, many of us send more than 20), and averaging the cost of a single text message at 30 cents, if the three cellular networks donated only three cents (3 cents for crying out loud) to charity, a respectable R 179 100 would have made it to people in dire need during the festive season.

Also assuming that half the mobile enabled population of South Africa sends at least one MMS message (cost thumbed at R 1.50) during the same time, with Vodacom, MTN and Cell C donating only 20 cents per MMS to charity, another respectable R 661 500 would have filled the coffers of charities in need.

Add a couple of cents for each call made, every e-mail sent and kilobytes browsed on smart phones and you’ll find yourself a handsome amount.

You see, large corporations have the advantage of numbers. And with very little effort, and undoubtedly an enormous boost in revenue during the festive season, that little effort each year could profoundly change the face of a third world country.

My hypothesis is a simple one, but with numbers like these and about half and hour for any able brained person, the benefits could be staggering.

Time to put on our thinking caps and for large corporations to join in on the responsibility we have toward the less fortunate.

$1 000 000 000 000. Say it like you mean it: “One trillion dollars.” The mobile industry is the world’s latest trillion dollar baby. What’s more profound is that it was achieved in slightly more than ten years.

How does it compare?

1. 1. Combined with radio, the broadcasting industry is still nowhere near a trillion dollar industry, only about half of that.
2. 2. Advertising is worth roughly half a trillion dollars, in very round terms.
3. 3. The IT industry? Another half trillion there.
4. 4. Air travel is also in the half trillion dollar range.

Does anything compare?

1. 1. Cars,
2. 2. the global food industry,
3. 3. and believe it or not, the global weapons industry are all trillion dollar businesses.
4. 4. Now add mobile to that list.

Where there’s money, there’s people. And where there’s people, there’s a target audience.

Back in 2001 when I got my first mobile phone, text messaging and calling was the only luxury we had. Mobile content was a pipe dream. However, on the 5th of December 2008, exactly 10 years prior, the first downloadable mobile content was launched, the ringtone. Unbeknown to the world population at large, a booming industry was born that day.

For anyone, any business in whatever shape or size not yet fully convinced that the future of digital marketing starts and ends with mobile, allow me to highlight some examples of this ridiculously growing industry (This is a long post, but you WILL be wow-ed, so bear with me):

• 1. The latest numbers reveal that the total number of unique mobile phone owners is now 3.05 billion (46% of the planet’s population do have a mobile phone, even after we remove the multiple subscriptions).

 

• 2. There are 1.4 billion TV sets in the world. But there are 2 billion mobile phones with a colour screen and at least 2.5G network connectivity, meaning they can display “streaming” ie live TV and video.

 

• 3. Of the four digital camera giants, only Canon and Nikon remain in the camera business, Konica and Minolta no longer exist in the camera market; and the world’s bestselling camera brand, since 2004, has been Nokia. (I have a phone with a 5 megapixel camera)

 

• 4. Music on mobile phones today, at the end of 2008, is passing the 11 billion dollar annual revenue level. When we bear in mind, that the total global music industry is only worth 30 billion dollars - it means that more than one in three dollars spent on music globally, is spent on the mobile phone.

 

• 5. 50 Cents with his smash hit, In da Club, in 2003 earned more as ringtone than all other music formats combined - and most annoyingly of course the Crazy Frog - to the tune of 500 million dollars of global sales of their ringtones and related services in 2005 – that’s one ringtone earning more than all of iTunes’ global sales that year.

 

• 6. A third of the mobile phone subscribers on the planet sends MMS picture messages - that is 1.3 billion people for those who are counting. Comparing that with 1.2 billion active users of email, and suddenly MMS is very interesting indeed. Worldwide, you can reach a larger audience if you put your content (or advertising) on an MMS picture message, than if you put it into email.

 

• 7. This year mobile social media passed $9 billion and next year will easily cross the 10 billion dollar level of annual revenues. From zero to 10 billion dollars in six years. Mobile social networking is by far the fastest-growing billion dollar industry ever. For comparison, the online internet side of social media is three times as old, and still hasn’t passed a billion dollars in total revenues - where most of that is advertising revenues. Mobile social networking sites are making oodles of cash, and many have already become profitable in this very short time.

 

• 8. In the past ten years, mobile content has turned into a global giant industry worth over 71 billion dollars of annual revenues. That is as big as all Hollywood box office revenues, plus all global music revenues, and all videogaming software revenues - put together. Hollywood and music are 100 year old industries. Videogaming is a 30 year old industry. But mobile has already grown bigger than all three, combined, in only ten years.

 

• 9. There are under 500 million newspapers sold daily. There are 900 million personal computers connected to the internet. There are 1.3 billion internet users. And 1.4 billion TV sets. But 1.5 billion people will receive ads on mobile phones this year. How many more will receive them next year?

I have a tip for you today. If you walk down the road and spot a public pay phone, take a picture of it, because, like in Finland, they’ll all be gone pretty soon.

My second tip is to get with the times and comprehend the superpowers of the mobile industry. The future of mankind’s commercial business models will rely on a piece of equipment you will rarely leave home without.

Thank you to Tomi Ahonen for his articles, content which I shamelessly copied and shortened for the convenience of my readers. If there are two articles you have to read before Christmas, it’s these two.

My latest phone, the Samsung Omnia, was a relatively easy choice for me to make. It is fully touch screen enabled, running Windows Mobile 6.1 which gives me the opportunity to customize just about every component for comfort, a clear, large screen for adequate multimedia experiences and not to mention the Garmin GPS software that came bundled with the phone.

Over and above all this cool gadgetry however is the fundamental use of it as a business phone. Our vocations are different, granted, but for me to consider a mobile phone adequate for business, easy typing capabilities are essential. I thought I’d put the Omnia to the test using the (rather sensitive) touch screen keyboard.

Without any editing, this is what I managed. (I did not capitalize any words as I was going for speed rather than accuracy. Editing is a process in its own.)

This will bbe my first fuull blown blog post from my samsung omnia mobbile telephone. Ll’ve nnow had the privilege to play arouunnd for various weeks with diferrent setttings to comme to a point where i’m in a position to revview the word processing potential of the omnia ppocket pc as miniiature ccoomputing alternative for buusy exxeccutives.

It has takenn me a great while to come to terms with the touch screen adaptation of the standard phyysiical keyboard. While it’s a space and weight saving triumph for the mobile computing industry, the relative sized screens coupled with the odd fat fingered adult, makes it quuite tthe achilles heel of advvanced mobile computiing.

Iincluding in the downside of touch sreen capabbilities llie the issue of sensitiivity. Finding a keyboard software applicatiion tht works well for your fingers is one thing (i did not find the standard omnia keyboard all that useful, and coonsiderinng the omnia ruuns on windows mobile 6.1, it lends vast capalitiies for third party applicatiions), managing to tap the correct letter as often times as possibble is another. Not to menntion the accidental doubble tap of letters ddue to the sensitive screen.

This is not only a point in case for the samsuung omnia, mind you, but a well documented issue with even the top of tthe pops apple iphone. It’s a rather unpleasant situatiion and one that is hard to foresee the manufactuurers overcome.

Only stiking to the tyyppewritingg capabbiliities of the touch sccreen pocket pc’s, the questiion i ccertinly need to answer is this: is thiis an executive’s phone, someone wiith basic emailiing and word processing rrequiiremennts? Judginng from the spelling issuues iin this artticcle, you’ll have to say no.

Buut does the ffact that iit took me only 20 minutes tto type this chnge anything? You bbe the juudge.

With mobile phone technology advancing rapidly, the critical role of citizens in today’s society has changed dramatically. People are becoming more involved through the mere fact that they are able to connect to a plethora of platforms using an array of media at the drop of a penny.

Citizen journalism, a term phrased for a society able to capture breaking news and distribute it immediately has seen many organisations embrace this new form of reporting. Arab news corporation, Al Jazeera has started incorporating mobile reporting into their repertoire of services.

With the quality of the mobile phone’s camera, the ability to connect through 3G, GPRS and Wi-Fi and location based services such as GPS capabilities, accurate portrayals of global happenings can now be distributed to the news corporations in an instant.

During the recent Mumbai terrorist attacks, one such citizen managed to capture a burning Taj Mahal and uploaded the images to his personal blog via his mobile phone.

From the New York Times: “At the peak of the violence, more than one message per second with the word “Mumbai” in it was being posted onto Twitter, a short-message service that has evolved from an oddity to a full-fledged news platform in just two years.”

“Some people transmitted video from inside the Taj hotel to news networks via cellphones. And reporters used cellphones to send text messages to hotel guests who had set up barricades in their rooms.”

In a time where the mobile phone continues to serve as value added device, an enormous advance from simply making phone calls and texting merely ten years ago, the role of marketing and communications are changing.

The mobile phone forms a critical part of everyday life now and companies should realize the potential this device poses to them.

I am sorry. But anybody who has the intelligence capacity, or lack thereof, to run up a telephone bill of $85k should be shot and his body cremated so that the organs cannot be donated to another unfortunate soul.

Canadian, Piotr Staniaszek, thought he could use his “$10 unlimited mobile browser plan from Bell Mobility” as cheap access point to the internet to browse, download and download some more to his heart’s content without being charged additional costs.

His defense for running up the bill now appears to lie somewhere between lack of communication, ignorance and stupidity. Ok, fair enough, the last two was added by me.

As if that isn’t enough, He said he thought the first bill for $65,000 in November was a mistake.

When he spoke to Bell Mobility he was informed the bill had climbed to nearly $85,000 after more downloading.

He downloaded high-definition movies and other large files unaware that this incurred massive extra charges.

Bell Mobility has since lowered the bill to $3,243, but Mr Staniaszek says he intends to fight the charges anyway.

Then he delivers the killer line that erases all reasonable doubt for me on his mental stability.

The thing is, they’ve cut my phone off for being like $100 over,” he told CBC News.

Here, I’m $85,000 over and nobody bothered to give me a call and tell me what was going on.

So this article spurred me on to draft a list of the type of people who should be shot for owning a mobile phone:

1. Piotr Staniaszek (for obvious reasons)

2. People who pay additional costs for a state-of-the-art phone but hardly even use it to make calls

3. The same people in point #2 who then come to me to asking to explain to them what some of the phone’s features are

4. People who use “Meisie meisie”, the farting noise, the ambulance siren or the standard Nokia tone (Yes, you too) as ring tone

5. People like Kurt Darren who use “Meisie meisie” tunes as ring tones

6. People driving on the highway at 60km per hour in the fast lane chatting on their phones

7. People who speak on their phones like it’s a walkie-talkie (Have you seen those kids?)

8. Women who think mobile phones is an excellent weapon to use in matrimonial disagreements

9. Men who think the model of their mobile phones represent the size of their wallets and other parts of their anatomy (take a drive through Clifton, Seapoint and you’ll know what I mean)

10. People who’ve bought those clip-on thingies to wear their mobile phone like a 9mm pistol (On their belts)

11. People in #10 that tuck in their shirts to show off their “gun”

12. People in #10, 11 that wear khaki shirts and matching pants with it

13. People in #10, 11, 12 who’s phone is actually the Nokia 3210

14. People who prefer, after 8 years, to still choose the Nokia 3210 when eligible for an upgrade because “It has everything I need in a phone” (Sorry dad!)

15. Some people in my office that does all of the above

Please add some more in the comments section.

“SUMMARY: Mobile marketing is on the verge of exploding as a specialty channel, but technology limitations and the marketplace aren’t quite in place yet. So do you want to be ahead of the curve or behind the times playing catch-up?”

I’d like to mash-up my article today a bit to cover most important sections pertaining to mobile, content distribution, convergence and creation.

While the marketplace isn’t exactly at the tipping point where mobile marketing is exploding onto the scene, it is important for businesses to identify technological trends and acknowledge the rapid pace at which it will happen.

When we look back at the dot.com crash in 2001, many never thought it realistic or even possible that the internet will again rise from the ashes and be a major role-player in business.

However, it has proven quite the contrary and it has escalated exponentially to where many marketers, I included, simply cannot see a way forward for businesses that does not converge their marketing strategies with online and wireless.

It simply cannot be ignored that consumers catch on to technological trends much quicker than businesses and marketing departments do. The irony of course is that most of these marketers are also consumers embracing technology, but due to reasons beyond scope simply do not manifest these societal trends into their marketing strategies.

Companies also often have the tendency to measure or require ROI to be measured in tangible monetary value. However, consumer demands have shifted as such that businesses need to rely on value added services more often to keep up retention numbers and have their consumers engage with their brand.

Content distribution is one such area where companies need to reevaluate consumer needs demands as many of them simply do not care for the company’s preferred method of distribution.

Many consumers do not wish and simply do not engage in newspaper formats anymore for sourcing of news.

They are on the go people and if media companies do not comprehend this shift and converge content distribution to mobile devices, their readership will simply shift to brands that do.

Financial & Advisory companies need to realise that these types of value added services aren’t luxuries, they are must-haves to keep their clients in the loop and informed at all times.

More prominent even are retailers. By advertising in magazines at extortionate pricing is failing to recognise that consumers spend the majority of their time on the internet and connected to their mobile phones.

These consumers not only prefer, but demand that product information be readily available to them or they will simply move on to brands that do provide these value added services.

The internet has enabled smaller businesses the same amount of access and opportunities to compete with the big corporates, whether they like it or not. It is often these smaller brands that also value innovation and manage to reach the sort of critical mass in a much shorter time span.

While the repercussions of failure to advance would probably not be felt immediately, it is absolutely crucial to understand that it is imminent. Moreover, it is critical to understand why it is going to happen.

These blogs serves a purpose, and it is not to deliver grandiose advice in search of your money. History suggests the patterns of the future and if the dot.com crash has served anything, it is that businesses have become smarter and have come to the inevitable conclusion that the future of business lies in smart marketing in the online and mobile arena.

They have learned through the mistakes of others. It is time to ask yourself whether you’d prefer to be the mistake someone else learns from, or whether you’d prefer to learn from the mistakes of others.

The epicentre of all things marketing and advertising shifted from mass distribution and mass delivery (which too often also includes spam) to what is brilliantly termed Just-in-Time marketing.

Just-in-Time marketing is timeously putting forward your products and services to a segmented, targetted audience base that has shown or is prone to an interest in it.

Traditional and online Marketing / advertising has always been a Just-in-Case practice including the larger part of society and demographics to hopefully conjur up the sort of sales conversion rates that get Managers and their clients excited. (You know, the 5% to 10% industry norm)

Since advertising has taken over mainstream media, with the average American exposed up to 3800 marketing messages daily, society has become immune to almost all forms, shapes and sizes. Mostly, that is.

Businesses and marketers, the smart ones at least, have kept an eye on developments and trends and came to the realisation that the only true form of marketing today is permission based.

There is no better platform to lauch permission based, Just-in-Time marketing campaigns from, than consumers’ most personal and valued commodity: their mobile phones.

Three things that stand out from consumers’ mobile behaviour:

1. They are convenience driven. Instant gratification has never been such high priority in the information overload era.

2. They use their mobile phones predominantly for communications with their personal contacts. There are no greater marketing effects than word of mouth recommendations. (ie. Text message forwarding)

3. They carry their mobiles everywhere they go. Simply texting your messages to them might not be enough. Businesses have to stimulate its audience’s senses. Billboards for retail, websites & television for Financial Services, radio for Arts & Culture.

“Mobile is already a platform, but the consensus was that leveraging the power of the web, integrating web services into mobile medium is the future of mobile.”

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