It was inevitable. The youth have been experimenting with mobile internet browsing despite its clunkiness and long before proper data bundles were made available by the cellular networks.

All that has changed now…and will continue to change at a very rapid pace. “More people in the world will have their first interaction with the internet with mobile than with laptop,” said internet co-founder (and Google vice president) Vinton Cerf at a five-day web conference which wrapped up on Friday (April 24, 2009) in Madrid. (ABS-CBN calls it “boom times for mobile”)

There are more than 3.5 billion mobile phones on the planet (4 billion according to this source) and undoubtedly the number of phones with internet browsing capabilities will increase dramatically. The iPhone is the envy of (m)any (a) mobile phone user, but with its elegance comes a price. Most ardent Apple fans will own one (and continue to ridicule people who don’t), but mobile device manufacturers have felt the pressure and similar phones are now popping up all over the show.

“The move to mobile access is very important as mobile devices are the first way that people in developing countries get their first contact with the web,” said one of the inventors of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee.

Just five percent of Africans currently surf the web, compared to 23 percent of the entire population of the globe, the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union said in a report last month.

The greatest downside of mobile internet has been the difficulty with browsing web pages on the small screens of mobile phones, subsequently dampening consumer demand.

Enter the iPhone (and the Samsung Omnia, Sony-Ericsson Xperia, HTC Touch Pro, Blackberry Storm and many others)

With its touch screen capabilities, the iPhone enabled users to scroll web pages by touching the screen and dragging, while zooming into certain areas by double tapping on the screen. Mobile internet browser, Opera, soon followed suite.

Also fueling the growing appeal of mobile Internet access is the fact that applications and web sites are now being developed just for portable devices and their smaller size.

“One of the most exciting developments is that the Web is going mobile. We can finally access all these things anywhere, anytime,” said Belgian software scientist Robert Cailliau who designed the web with Berners-Lee in 1989.

There is suddenly a huge market opening for mobile web and application developers, undoubtedly spurred on by the iPhone App Store, creating smarter, quicker and more effective ways of connecting to our favourite sites.

More Googlers are excited by the prospect, with Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, stating:  “Mobile devices are the most important technology of (them) all.”

These are exciting times, but also poses and enormous gap for businesses to jump in early and grab market share of an already gigantic, yet ever growing, mobile web browsing, “always on, always connected” generation.

Is your business available on mobile?
What are your favourite apps on your phone?

I’ve been doing tons of research on how to make money using mobile these past couple of weeks. I am happy to inform you that I’m now well versed in giving out valuable advice on how to best monetize your business with mobile.

This should be especially juicy since our less fortunate, and much more hyped up digital friend, the internet, is still a penniless mass (mess?) of user created content without a commercial model to support it.
So let’s delve right into the soft side:

1. Mobile social networking. If Facebook stopped cutting deals with money grabber Microsoft and focused on creating a superior mobile extension, they might actually turn a profit for a change. Not much chance of that happening though…so much more the better for anyone else out there.

2. Freemium. Isn’t it just the coolest word ever? Freemium explains a business model where you provide a base service for free and charge for premium services. Again, Facebook could’ve employed this tactic, which I guess they did in a way with gifts, although it’s hardly premium.

Also keep in mind that we’re focusing on mobile. What makes freemium extra special on mobile is because of mobile’s micropayment capabilities. Users don’t have to waste time through a multi-paged shopping cart and credit card submissions. Click, download, install. We’ll take care of the bill at the end of the month.

3. Subscriptions. If you have content of value, drive it through a subscription based model. This service increases exponentially in value if you run a news service, weather, stocks and other similar services.

4. Personalization, gifts and ego services. ‘Ego services’ is another term I really love. People are ego driven. Why else would they join social networks in the public domain? And if you run a service with the capabilities to have users stroke their own egos, charge a minor fee for it.

5. Revenue share model. If you can charge for the content that your users create, repaying them in revenue shares would create a snowball effect…more content, more views and even more revenue.

You might have picked up on the fact that one specific word is remarkably absent from this article. Advertising. Yes, the one thing that so many businesses reckon would make them their money.

With budgets tightening by the minute, marketers are being forced from their comfort zones to come up with ways to monetize businesses without the aid of advertisers.

Yesterday I was having a rooted conversation with a couple of people on Twitter about the merits of mobile proximity marketing. Proximity marketing could best be described as communications via mobile when the handset owner is in the vicinity, or proximity, of the related brand.

So for example, if Nine Inch Nails (new IPhone app here) held a concert at Green Point Stadium the proximity marketing communications could take place when a handset owner comes within a radius of 10 km of the stadium, sending permission based (first prompt the user to send information) discount vouchers, reminders or even directions to the stadium.

A great example yesterday was for Ster Kinekor to send a link to a movie trailer including a discount voucher to mall goers who came in close proximity with the movie theater.

Typically, proximity marketing will be executed using Bluetooth technology and many case studies of this practice have been documented overseas. A couple of concerns were raised yesterday and a number of misconceptions were also resolved as our discussion continued. Some were greatly averse to the idea of pushing marketing messages to their mobile phone stating unsolicited mobile communications as primary objections.

On the other side of the pendulum, I was quite keen on this marketing method as I believe it could add tremendous value, especially concerning live events, if done properly and with the necessary conduct. I was under the impression that the proximity server could pick up hand-held devices with built-in Bluetooth technologies regardless of whether it was activated or not.

It turns out that I am completely wrong and for proximity marketing to work, the hand-held device needs to have its Bluetooth technology activated. This poses a huge problem, as my mini survey on Twitter yesterday showed that there are really very few people that are keen on keeping their Bluetooth technologies activated at all times. Shorter battery life and again unsolicited messages were stated as primary reasons.

Only special occasions, for example when the owner is transferring files with his friend, will the Bluetooth be enabled and when finished, immediately deactivated again. Another interesting addition to the conversation was semacodes, or QR codes, which I’m more familiar with.

A QR code, like the image to the left, is a two-dimensional barcode which is fast becoming mainstream in Japan and other technologically advanced countries, adding an innovative dynamic to brand engagement. The codes are typically used to embed links to websites, plain text, business cards or telephone numbers that are displayed and could be executed when a mobile device uses the appropriate application to scrawl over the code, effectively scanning it. (Download the software here and create your codes here…remember to scan mine by hovering over it)

It is popularly used in Japan in print publications, street graffiti where some have been spotted to be painted on building is even and on shopfront windows. Innovative marketers use the code is to engage especially the mobile crazed youths to explore their brands and create a unique experience that is worthy of being shared with peers.

Of course for something to become mainstream it has to be adapted by the masses and Nokia seems to be leading the way by including the software needed to perform the scanning with many of their N-series mobile devices.

Again there seems to be a barrier to entry as I found little evidence to support, but from experience at least evidence to suggest that these codes can only be read in the formats of the operating system it was created in. For instance, Nokia mobile phones will only be able to read Nokia created codes as I found it impossible to scan the code on the Nokia web site with my Samsung Windows Mobile-based Omnia phone.

I have countless questions this week and I hope to have my readers engage in a bit of debate.

1. Are you those to keeping your Bluetooth technology enabled at all times? Why or why not?

2. Have you ever received marketing communications via your Bluetooth enabled phone when in a shopping mall or something similar? Which brand was it? What do you think about this tactics?

3. Have you seen or worked with QR codes before? Do you believe it will become mainstream in the South African?