texting
Texting leads the pack..
Survey results infographic by Rob on “Total Telecom the Editor’s Cut” show that Text and Photo’s are the most used applications by smartphone users – I guess we knew that anyway. The recent acquisition by Facebook of Instagram, a Photo based application looks to support the survey. Pinterest certainly supports a “photo shot” collaboration and a great video on the stats around them is interesting on http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com . A great article by Om Malik at Gigaom is a smart read. Business and consumers are now communicating more effectively in a collaborative sense with social media applications as reported by blog.reachcast.com . The smartphone revolution is building tremendous momentum discussed in detail at blog.reachlocal.com giving mobile statistics that are impacting small business enterprises . Jason Spero , Head of Mobile Ads (America’s) at Google provides a compelling presentation.
China leading the World
China the most populated nation on Mother Earth is embracing mobile phones and the spin for developer’s is to engage in collabrative ways to address the demand. With this in mind the rest of the World needs to adopt a similar attitude to stay in touch. Here is some information from Finextra on research by KPMG into mobile payments adoption by China.
The statistics are amazing. More than 1 billion mobilephone subscribers in China and 6 billion plus worldwide. From the figures about 48% use 3G (3rd generation internet) capable handsets in developed countries. For many the basic Text, call and internet access capability of feature phones is sufficient. Figures posted by mobilethinking.com indicate that 36.4% of mobilephone sales are smartphones and 63.6% are feature phones (source http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS23455612 ) .
A list of mobile phone subscribers in Australia and New Zealand in comparisen with population indicates that there is more than 100% subscription – maybe many use more than one?. The market growth is around 2.6%. A recent analysis reported by Budde Comm in relation to New Zealand indicates 120% market penetration with Vodafone, Telecom and 2Degrees the major Mobile Network operators. However with the planned upgrades to internet speed and more smartphone use it is likely that consumers will look to alternative connectivity such as MoiP and VoiP. A New Zealand Government Web Standards report around SMS use and agency initiatives provides a “political” perspective.
Marketing and Advertising SMS, Text and MMS
The reach of mobile applications cannot be ignored by marketing and advertising channels. SMS, Text and MMS capable solutions provide a direct opportunity for businesses to engage with consumers numbering 6 billion plus globally. Check out the 685% ROI whitepaper by Text Marketing solution ProTexting. It all becomes a very different ballgame for Marketers with the ever changing mobile technology. Paybuytext a Mobile Payment Gateway and SAS solutions can make the whole interaction an enjoyable, secure and user-friendly experience. Consumer choice based on quality information provided by vendor’s is increasingly important and oftened shared using social media or even simple text messages. Good product or service reviews in online business directories can “sway” consumer’s to buy from “reputable” sources. Paybuytext applications include easy access widgets to process inquiries, bookings, orders, voice messages, purchasing, calls and more. A custom solution for passenger transport operators is now available including mobile payments. SMS or Short Message Services include Text messages and Email messages. MMS is an abbreviation for Multi Media Services and means that even “imagery” can be sent or shared on the smartphones. For Marketing and Advertising initiatives the process to self-manage these “green” applications by adopting SMS notifications and payment receipting is now available with the launch of Paybuytext.
TruthNews, New Zealand and Mobile 