International Digital Marketing

Augmented reality mobile apps’ future looks bright. According to Juniper, by 2015 global revenues from AR will reach 1.5 billion dollars. ABI Research forecasted that even if in 2010 revenue from AR was only 21 million dollars, amount might very well increase to 3 billion dollars by 2016. But it gets better: AIB claims that revenues related to AR will increase from 6 million dollars in 2009 to more than 3.5 billion dollars in 2014 – which signifies a yearly growth of 97%.

Main reason for the growth and high predictions is the exploding global use of Smartphones, which are able to run the augmented reality apps, and the big brands which are very keen to take advantage of the new shiny toy.

No wonder Google and Apple want the biggest piece of the cake. And are ready to fight for it.

Augmented reality – a new way to see the world

Long way short, augmented reality apps allow user to see digital text, animations, links or images in real time on top of the real life environment via mobile devices. For example, only by placing the mobile front of a painting in Rome, user can get information of the painter, history or dimensions. Or more fun example: user can play real life pac man, where the players look like computer pac man characters (through mobile of course). Basically, the possibilities are endless. See list of interesting AR apps here.

Blooming augmented reality market

At present, most of the augmented reality elements focus on marketing and entertainment, but there has been some experiments with online shopping experience, ecommerce, tourism and search. Layar (http://layar.com) is currently the leader developing AR apps for both Android OS and iPhone OS, including advertising, reviews, ratings or other information users need in real time. Yelp is another rating and review service, mobile media company Ogmento creates AR mobile games and Wikitude shows the user in real world the information from Wikipedia and other sources.

Google and Apple: augmented reality rivals

Google and Apple are very interested in the possibilities augmented reality can bring, since both Android and iPhone have computer vision technologies that rely on Smartphone cameras. Other companies have developed AR apps for both OS, but it brings a small revenue compared to the profit and business opportunities a fully owned killer AR app could bring. In addition Google has already picked up a fight with Yelp, one of the providers.

Google started by creating Goggles, a mobile app for Android and iOS which can translate text, get more information out of contact info, artwork and books besides of recognizing landmarks, logos and wine labels. However unlike Augmented reality, Googles does not process and present things in real time. It takes a photo, sends it to Google’s servers, which recognize and translate it before sending the result back.

Apple meanwhile has acquired Polar Rose, a company which has created facial recognition software and other elements that enable the “automatic creation of events based on visual cues in images.” This brings enormous possibilities on social networking area.

Apple/ Facebook Partnership?

Facebook and Google do not like each other. Apple and Google do not like each other. What would be a better partnership than ganging against a common enemy?

Apple has the iPhone OS and technology, and Facebook its Facebook Places and large user base perfect for the newly acquired facial recognition. If these two companies join forces they can very well have a chance to compete with Google. Actually these two combined could possibly even be very, very dangerous for Google.

Let’s imagine Google decides to upgrade Google Places and create AR version. With its impressive data base and search engine & Google maps experience it could very well become a killer app. There are review and map AR apps, but they are mainly focused on cities and tourist attractions such as NY, Paris and London for example. Imagine an app you could use everywhere you go: like Google Maps with a real life view. Imagine what it would mean for local businesses and advertisers to be highlighted in real life environment.

Now if Apple and Facebook decided to join the forces, they could compete in AR “places” category with a social touch. Imagine an app where you can see in real life not only the ratings or info, but also which places have been recommended or visited by your friends. Seeing little pictures of friends who like the place or even friends who actually are currently there sounds very attractive. Imagine adding the Facebook “deals” function with the discount/offer that is available in the place.

Of course this Apple/Facebook partnership could lead even further if the two explore more the social networking capability on the iPhone. For example, user could see other person’s social networking info and feeds from Facebook just by looking at them though the phone. Big personal privacy issues yes, because no one wants a stranger in the street or bar to know his name and everything else about him. But then again – when exactly Facebook has cared about privacy issues?

Expanding market with huge potential

It has been predicted that augmented reality will take between five to ten years to become mainstream, together with the Smartphones. Brands and consumers do not necessarily understand yet how the technology works, but AR creates interest and fascination. Android, Nokia, iPhone…there is something to explore and take advantage of.

According to a 2010 study by Pew Research Center, the amount of young bloggers has decreased dramatically over the past few years by half. The number of blogging teenagers decreased to 14 % compared to 28% in 2006 and the amount of young adult bloggers (18-29-years-old) has dropped 9% since 2007.

Meanwhile, the older generation is getting more comfortable with blogging: 11% of the over 30-year-old adults blogged in 2010, compared with 7% in 2007. Also, during the last two years blogging by the 34-45 year-old Internet users has increased 6%  (up to 16%), 46-55-year-old bloggers saw an increase of 5%  (up to 11%), and even 65-73-year-olds blogged 2% more (up to 8%).

It seems like the blogger generation is getting older and younger generation prefers social networking – is blogging becoming the sport of “old” people?

Micro-blogging in Social Networks

“The first thing going on here is the broader movement from MySpace, which had a integrated blogging function, to Facebook, which doesn’t put its blogging capabilities up front as MySpace does,” says Aaron Smith, a research specialist at Pew Internet & American Life Project.

There has been a clear movement from long blog posts, “macro-blogging”, to quick status updates and messages, “micro-blogging”, offered by Facebook, Twitter and other similar social networks. Young people “do not have time” to write long blog posts nor can they be bothered to read “two page novels” of someone’s life or brand’s awards. The new generation wants it short, actual and in real-time.

Also, according to a 2010 study by Technorati based on respondents in North-America, Europe, APAC and South America, even users who are currently blogging say that their devotion to micro-blogging (30%) and social networks (28%) have reduced their blogging activity. Another very interesting detail was that on average the bloggers actually spent more time on social media sites (9.9h/week) than they spent reading other blogs (9.2h/week).

Increasing popularity of Smartphones

Smartphones are constantly increasing their market share around the globe, especially among young people, and as Japanese “Twittermania” has shown they are perfect for micro-blogging. With the augmented Internet use and social media apps, people spend more time checking the latest headlines and status updates, watching videos, commenting with few words and sharing interesting content through mobile devices.

Anyone who has ever blogged knows it requires hard work and concentration and anyone who has ever read a blog post in a mobile knows the effort it takes to read a long post in the small screen. More online or digital communications are happening through mobile devices and the amount of text user can type and read is quite limited.

So, are blogs getting out of fashion?

No. Let’s say they are just becoming more refined by age.

According to the Technorati study, bloggers are more affluent and educated than the general population: 79% have college degrees and 43% have graduate degrees, 30% has a household income of $75K+ and 25% has a household income of $100K+.

65% of the bloggers are 18-44-years-old and 81% of them have been blogging more than 2 years, which increases the quality of the content. In the early ages, blogging was seen as an entertainment for teenagers while now Facebook and other social networks are taking that role and “old” people are catching up. Also, the amount of companies using blogs for marketing has been increasing during the years as shown in the graph below.

Now let’s see. How much relevant content can you include in 140 characters or a Facebook status update if you cannot link it to anything? Why users would be interested in any of your posts if they cannot click to find out more?

Linking the posts only to the official website or other people’s content does not seem enough either. Blogging allows the brand to talk more than just products and services and explore more fun and creative ideas. Blog is also a great way to establish an image of an expert and let your or brand’s voice to be heard over the competition. Only passing someone else’s posts or tweets around without bringing anything your own to the content does not really show who you are or what you really are worth. People and brands without opinions are boring.

From SEO perspective, new and relevant keyword filled content quickly shows in Google, which increases traffic to your blog. Linking posts properly can increase traffic to your website, which in turn improves your website’s ranking.

In reality, social media, micro-blogging and blogs can complement each other. Including social bookmarking buttons into the blog posts helps it to spread around the social networks and promoting the blog posts in Twitter and Facebook increase traffic to the blog. Meanwhile, short relevant posts or tweets about the blog posts add interesting content to your social network sites.

New generation, new trends

However, it is very important to remember that in the end young people are early adopters of the new technologies and communication channels and “old” people are slow to follow. First blogs were for teenagers, then Twitter and Facebook were just for silly teenage talk and no doubt the increased amount of Smartphones will change the settings and trends even more. Whether new generation moves from micro-blogging to traditional blogging in the future is a good question, but at least for the next few years blogs will still remain a good channel to express more profound thoughts, ideas, expertise and opinions of current events and future trends.

The increase of mobile Internet use and Smartphone popularity have augmented the importance of designing a specific mobile website. Blackberry, iPhones, iPads, Android, Nokia and other devices can already bring a big part of the traffic to the website, however if the website is not mobile friendly the users might leave as fast as they arrived. The mobile optimized sites are booming and users have become more exigent and expect higher standards while navigating with their devices.

What is very important to realize is that a standard computer screen is not the same as iPhone or Nokia screen and the PC website looks very different in mobile devices. It is essential to take in account the design and lay-out, the legibility and navigation, and the need of fast and efficient download time.

Some examples:

• Size of screen: Screens are smaller and the web content is organized in different way than in the normal webpage. Basically, it is necessary to organize the information in a vertical manner, but still avoid the need for user to slow down.
• Images: All the images in the pages should be correct size and smaller and lighter than in the normal page to allow faster download.
• Connection speed: Your mobile website should be optimized for a fast download and should take in account the lost of connection and other issues related with the connection speed. This especially important for a mobile website that sells products and does not want the user to get worried if the connection fails during the transaction.
• Widgets and plugins: All the additional components, like widgets, plugins and add-ons can slower down your mobile web and the site might not work in all mobiles. For example, the Apple devices are not compatible with flash, so if you are creating a mobile website, avoid Flash and if possible choose the format HTML5.

As always, it is very important not to focus only on technical aspects, but also consider the end-user. More user-friendly the mobile website is, more likely the user is going to come back.

Remember, mobile users want their information fast:

Mobile and PC users have different reasons to visit your page. PC users are more likely to navigate for leisure, while mobiles are usually used in the time of need and users are more likely to want information urgently to help them at that exact time and location. For example, to find timetables, directions or events near-by. Also they might want quick, fast entertainment to fill up the dead moments in the metro or the bus.

Forget always visible top navigation bar and concentrate on content:

Another difference with PC and Mobile sites is that well designed websites respecting usability repeat the navigation bar on every page to facilitate the user journey. However, since mobile screen is smaller, the top navigation pushes the actual content down and users are forced to scroll down on every page. To increase the usability on your mobile website, show the navigation bar only on the homepage and on other pages include just links to the homepage, back to the last important point users have taken (searching dates & cost for example) and next call to action (for example “buy”). These links should be shown at the top and bottom of the page to keep them close.

Highlight the selected items clearly:

It is usually quite difficult to navigate with the mobile phone, because when you move down the page with the joystick or direction buttons it does not only scroll down, but highlights links, buttons and form fields. This makes it hard for users to see, which item is in focus. Changing the appearance of the item by for example showing different font or background colour of the links or buttons makes it stand out from the rest of the items.

Allow users to select instead of having to write:

Having to type on mobile phone can take time, causes errors and is not viewed positively if the user needs information fast. Allowing users to search or input information by selecting certain fields with an easy-to-use dropdowns instead makes the user journey more pleasant. For example, country, region, sity, type of concert, available movies etc.

Only show essential and relevant information:

Mobile phone users have small screens and not much time to go through the website. Therefore, the best way to save their time would be to create a specific url for the mobile website (which users can bookmark) and re-direct the traffic coming through mobiles straight to the mobile optimized site with the most essential features and content. If the mobile website shows the same, long, nicely written content as in the normal site, information is difficult to find and user might have to scroll down to reach the important content. And pay for it. Most of the mobile phone users do not have yet a fixed cost deal for the internet, so downloading useless content might cost them quite a lot.

Do no forget the “Back” button:

Most of the mobile browsers do not show basic control buttons such as “back” to save screen space or they have opted-in to display webpages always in the full screen mode. That is why the site should have buttons or links such as “Back”, “Next page”, “Back to search results” or “New search” at the bottom of each page. Also, all the buttons should be big and easy to press/click. Another trick to use is a clickable phone number “Click to call”, which has shown to increase the CTR.

Create mobile-friendly design and lay-out:

As mentioned before, usually layouts created for large landscape PC screens do not work well in small mobile screens and user needs to scroll and scroll…and scroll. In case you only want to tweak your website a bit more mobile-friendly, present the content on the left hand side (such as journey search etc. ) with the most important navigation buttons on the top. However, it is better to have a separate page for mobile users if the site receives a lot of mobile traffic.

Zed Digital released recently a fourth wave of the study  “Mobiles and Advertising: perception, use and tendencies” (Móviles y Publicidad: percepción, usos y tendencias), which interviewed 16.000 consumers between 14 and 44 years - the largest sample in Spain so far in this type of studies.

In Spain we are facing a mature mobile market with more advanced capacities and services with 58% of the respondents having had their mobile for less than a year.  Consumers have learned how to access more advanced and innovative services and there is a clear turning point from a professional internet mobile into a personal internet mobile.

However, the market is still expanding. Most popular operators are Movistar (35,85%), Vodafone (29,70%) and Orange (20,65%), however they are all losing market share for the smaller operators. Main reasons for the change are costs, customer service and different model that is offered if you change your operator.

Internet usage:

54% of the respondents confirms accessing internet via mobile. The principal activities are checking emails, using search, entering social networks and instant messaging.

Almost 50% has a wi-fi with an increase of a 95% compared with the third wave, which shows the rapidity that the terminals adopt new services in the mobiles and smartphones. Yet even if the internet access via mobile has increased, in the next years we will see how it will still see a growth because consumers are yet behind all the technical possibilities their phones offer. This shows in the fact that even if 84% of the users have internet access, only 54% uses it. Same thing happens with packages and use of email, instant messaging and GPS. It shows the clear potential Internet Mobile has in the near future, since users own already devices that are technologically advanced and they only need to learn how to use all the features.

Social Networks:

Use of social networks via mobile has increased between 16-44 years old individuals by 275% in 2010.

The study also analyzes the profile of the users that access social networks via mobile: Young urban who enters social networks to take advantage of the time in the metro or bus to principally send messages (80%) and gossip in 48% of the cases. The most popular network in the device is Facebook with 89% of the users.

62% of the users have less than 30 years and 44% lives in cities with more than 200.000 habitants.

19.8% of the users spend more than an hour and 29% between an hour and half an hour  in Social Networks. Main perceived advantages users saw were taking advantage of time in bus or metro, being connected to the Social Networks even if they were not at work or at home and being more active user than others because they can connect more time than their friends do.

Communication & Apps:

64% of the respondents counts with instant messenger, mostly Windows Live Messenger with 79% penetration among the users, compared with 31,24% with Skype.

What comes to the use of email and instant messenger, there are two different profiles. Email is mostly used by a man between 30-40 years and Hotmail stays the most used service with 68% of the users, followed by Gmail with 55%. In the contrary, the instant messager is equally popular between two sexes, but is used by younger users (18-24-year-olds).

Concerning the apps, already 24% of the users download them habitually. The principle downloads are games and entertainment followed by social networks and instant messenger. These apps are the ones they keep in their phone and use mostly daily.

Advertising

According to the study, respondents perceive mobile marketing as a meeting point between consumer and the brand and think it offers the brand modernity, innovation, differentiation and leadership.

They also noticed the advertising in mobiles: 72% remembers having seen advertisements in their phone and 49% has clicked an advert some time. Besides, surprisingly 46% of the consumers would give permission to receive advertising into their phone and this percentage would increase if there was some advantage for the consumer (discounts, operator loyalization points) or if it was advertising they have requested.

The most attractive advertising formats are audio MMS and the sponsored videos, advergaming and sponsored apps – formats that offer consumer additional advantage for user.

On the other hand, the geolocalization services have huge potential, because 73% of the interviewed said they would be interested of receiving advertising messages related to the place where they are.

Only 3 years ago half of the intelligent mobiles in Spain were used in professional environment, however, with the more attractive smartphone prices and offers from the operators, the balance has tipped in a favour of consumer market and personal use. The use of social networks, music and games are the keys in the new era where mobile marketing in Spain is no more an option, but a necessity – and it is even welcome according to the users! From a web design and usability point of view, it is now important to consider if your website is mobile friendly and is it easy to use in small scale.

Of course, it is not about concentrating only on mobile marketing, but integrating it slowly yet steadily into your other marketing and communication strategies. Taking advantage of the trend now when the interactive mobile advertising is not yet saturated and is perceived positive can give your brand a strong position in the future.

Research and Markets has published an interesting study of mobile communications and mobile data markets in 38 African countries. Due to the launch of prepaid services and the declining price of phones and tariffs, there are almost billion people in Africa who are now able to afford a mobile phone. Even if the biggest demand is in the major cities, mobile phones are also used in rural and other disadvantaged areas to increase accessibility.

The major highlights of the report:

• Mobile market penetration in Africa is expected to pass 50% during 2010
• At least eight African countries will have broken the 100% mobile penetration barrier by the end of the year while some African mobile markets are still growing at more than 100% per annum
• Overall growth across the continent is expected to slow to 17%
• Mobile ARPU has bottomed in some markets but is still falling rapidly in others
• Some mobile operators are rolling out national fibre-optic backbone networks and are entering new service sectors under converged licensing regimes
• Mergers and Acquisitions are expected to intensify in an increasingly crowded market

Smartphones and Africa – not as impossible combination as we could imagine.

The high price has kept most of the Africans off them so far, but after the boom of the affordable Smartphones these compact ‘mobile computers’ have grown both in its popularity and capabilities. They were originally targeted at the businessmen, yet they have begun to challenge the rest of the mobile phone market – and laptop market as well. Executive Fred Baumhardt stated at Microsoft SA’s Tech-Ed Africa 2009 conference in Durban, that mobile devices such as Smartphones are entering the market four times faster than PCs or laptops. They have the potential to bring Internet connectivity and replace the need for other gadgets, providing considerable cost savings to many small businesses and consumers in Africa.

One example of the African Smartphone country is South-Africa:

According to a study by World Wide Worx, 75% of South African companies have already used Smartphones within their organizations. Two years ago there were almost none.

“These results show that enterprise mobility solutions are no longer just nice to have. They’re essential for businesses that want to be competitive, responsive and efficient. Smartphones are now mainstream devices within South African businesses, but the smartphone revolution has only just begun. Enterprises should now be looking at what smartphones mean for their businesses in a more strategic and holistic fashion”, declares Deon Liebenberg, Regional Director for Sub Sahara Africa at Research in Motion (RIM).

What makes Smartphones also relevant for the organizations is the size of the country. An organization’s building may still be in one place, its people, activities, information, documentation and data can be accessed from anywhere.

The top 10 most popular Smartphones used in SA to access the internet, according to AdMob Mobile’s Metrics Report April 2010:

1. Nokia N70
2. Nokia 6300
3. Nokia E63
4. Apple iPhone
5. Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
6. RIM BlackBerry 8520
7. Nokia N73
8. Nokia E71
9. Nokia 6210
10. Nokia 6110

However, what comes to mobile phone usage itself, South Africa is no longer as dominant as it once was. In 2000 it accounted for 74% of Africa’s mobile connections, but in 2009 the percentage had dropped to 19%. There has been strong growth in Nigeria and Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania and Cote d’Ivoire have also increased the amount of African mobile connections.

What will be interesting to see is whether a continent far behind on technology will actually jump over the computer/laptop phase and acquire straight a compact affordable Smartphone.

Despite huge media coverage, the iPhone OS is actually not that popular it seems.

According to a recent study by Nielsen measuring the recent acquired Smartphones in the U.S, iPhone OS has experienced a decrease in popularity while Android OS is experiencing a steady growth.

This data combined with the ComScore study in July 2010 claiming that Blackberry owns 39.3% of the Smartphone market share in U.S. compared with 23.8% market share  iPhone has backs this up. Android OS follows the two with 17%, a number that is constantly increasing. Windows Mobile holds 11.8% of the market share, Palm 4.9% and Symbian (Nokia) only 3.2%.

What comes to Europe, it is a completely different story. The recent study by comScore reveals surprisingly that the five largest European Smartphone markets in Europe are still ruled by Nokia. A high 51.2% of Smartphone-owning respondents in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy have a Symbian OS by Nokia.

In UK and France, Symbian (Nokia) is the most popular Smartphone OS with 37.3% and 35.4% of the market share respectively. However, in both countries it is challenged by Apple’s iOS with more than 30% of the market share in France and almost 30% in UK.  In UK the third challenger is Blackberry with 16% and in France Windows Mobile with 13.8%.

In Germany Symbian (Nokia) has 51.6% of the total market share, compared with iPhone OS with 21.2% and Windows Mobile with 16%.

Surprisingly or not, the Symbian (Nokia) rules Italian and Spanish Smartphone market with a high 72.5% and 69.3% respectively. iPhone and Windows Mobile have a long way ahead in these two countries with their percentage remaining very close to 10%. And no, these two markets are not immature markets what comes to the Smartphone adoption.  They actually have the largest percentage of mobile users with a Smartphone in Europe – with 34.1% for Italy and 31.9% for Spain.

The UK, Germany and France have 28.5%, 20.3% and 19.3% Smartphone penetration respectively – while the US has 22.8%.

Now why is that?

One of the reasons could be that Smartphones such as iPhone are very expensive, or require at least £50 a month contract for two years, while Symbian phones are available at a reasonable cost to anyone who wants a Pay as you Go phone. One example is the Nokia 5230 that has sold more than 10 million handsets and has most of the features user wants from a Smartphone. It is classified in competence at the same level as the mid range Android devices and very close to the 3G and 3GS iPhones.

And why should I care?

Because if you want to get involved in mobile marketing, you need to know which mobiles your target audience is using for the simple reason that the mobile apps need to be developed with a specific operating system in mind.

If you want to reach the most of the market, but at the same time want to create buzz in press, you will not be able to choose between Apple and Android for app development in the U.S. nor between Symbian (Nokia) and Apple in Europe. For the best coverage you need to pick both and stay updated on the latest mobile trends and numbers. Press will love the iPhone app, the consumers the Symbian or Android app.

Now in 2011 everything has changed again with the new Nokia Microsoft partnership. Please find more information here.

Everyone has heard about Social Networks and mobile marketing, but what is exactly a location-based service? LBS is an information and entertainment service, that can be accessed with mobiles through the mobile network and which has the ability to make use of the geographical position of the mobile in question.

Think about the traditional media you use to reach consumers in specific geographic markets (direct mail, newspapers, directories, cable and outdoor). Now think about reaching this target group through mobile, which is able to tell the exact location of the person or object. Goodbye out-dated information.

Long way short: Local is about the point of sale and mobile with LBS brings the consumer to the point of sale.

However, there are many businesses out there that do not take advantage of LBS. If you need the numbers, here we go:

• Increase of traffic to POS: According to a study by Opus Research, 20% of the consumers redeem mobile coupons, compared with 13% online and 1% print coupons.
• Relevance: After analyzing more than 5 million searches, Chitika found that local queries on the PC generate 38% more CTR than non-local queries. On mobile devices, local-search users clicked through 64% more often.
• Faster buying decision: Microsoft reported in early 2010 that 70% of users take a week to begin and complete a search-related task on the PC. On mobile devices, the time frame is one hour.

Mobile and LBS is a new, inexpensive and easy digital tool that drives consumers to the point of sale and captures campaign data. It helps the companies to track online-offline connection that earlier was very difficult. Even if between 80% and 90% of consumers regularly consult the Internet before making purchases in actual stores and the Internet’s influence over offline buying is unmistakable, local marketing online has really never had that “search to store” visibility.

LBS allows Smartphone-owners to “check in” to a business or address, and then instantly share that information with friends or connections. “Such recommendations provide “street cred” that is the single most powerful effect of location-based services”, Dan Zarrella, social media scientist at marketing-software firm HubSpot Inc, says. “If a bunch of my friends, whose opinions I trust, recommend it, I’m much more likely to be interested in it.”

There are quite a few LBS to pick from, depending on your preferences: Foursquare app on BlackBerry, Gowalla on Android and ShopKick on the iPhone, Other fast-growing LSBs include Brightkite Inc., Facebook Inc.’s Places and online-review site Yelp Inc.

There are many ways to use user’s location to your advantage. The best way to see how indentifying user’s location actually works is to have a look into different apps. As an international example I would recommend checking out the new Mazda6 not for everyone – app developed by Syzygy. It has been released in 9 different countries (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and Portugal), yet even if it is produced centrally it identifies user’s location in his/her current country and shows the closest unusual local restaurants, art events, outdoor activities, clubs or historical sites. And it shows user how to get there.

The intelligent twist is that these activities are not commonly known: you have to be local to know them. So if you are travelling in Europe and visit any of the above mentioned countries, you can open the app, go to Lifestyle section and pick the country you are in and see the rare, local activities close by.  Also, to drive traffic to the local POS, the app shows new features of the Mazda6 and calculates user’s route to the closest dealer according to their current location. This is a great example how cooperation with local market units and using GPS can give an extra spice to the mobile app and turn it relevant not only locally, but also internationally.

Mobiles & LBS have many benefits and since the Smartphone market is booming it will have even more important role in the future. It is a great way to reach your customers and gives them the immediate solution to their “problem/need”. Track what works and what does not and use that information to design local and relevant promotions and events that might bring these users back or recommend you to their friends and colleagues.

After the massive iPhone launch, new Smartphones are popping up everywhere. The competitors are catching up and smartphones’ speed, capacity, features and applications are highly increasing in the new versions. The manufacturers and application developers invest a lot of money and research to assure their products are intuitive and easy to use. However, are smartphones getting too smart for end-users?

According to the 2010 Digital Influence Index by Fleishman-Hillard and Harris Interactive, mobile users are not keeping up with the rapidly growing technology of the devices. We are not talking only about the USA here, the Index includes 48% of the global online population, such as France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Japan and the USA. People love smartphones and the market is booming yet the users do not realize the real potential their phone has. Even if Mobile Internet use is increasing, there is a considerable difference between the capabilities the smartphone offers and the quantity of people who actually leverage them.

Other study by Compete declares that there is a general misunderstanding of 4G (fourth generation) mobile technology in the USA. Currently, only the Sprint HTC EVO offers 4G in the country, yet 59% of US smartphone owners believe 4G is already available on a variety of phones and 16% think their carrier offers 4G. Interesting fact is that 69% of US smartphone users know that 4G allows for faster data downloads than 3G.

With the increasing competition in the smartphone market, what could really seduce the end-users? Are the applications too complicated, are the users “badly educated” or are we simply concentrating in wrong product attributes? Watching closely these two studies, it seems like the data service speeds plays a small part in purchase decisions. If users strongly believe the 4G is available, but they have not made an effort to have it, the priority must be somewhere else. We want things now and we want them fast yet even if data service speed is very important, in marketing and communication we should focus on another product attribute. But which one?

The different applications smartphone offers have a great potential and can result very powerful. But it seems like they are not as simple and intuitive as manufacturers believe. Or maybe they are not well explained. Yet if they need to be explained, they are not simple enough. In this society what we do not have is time (or patience) to read and go through in detail our smartphone manual. The user wants to click the application and see immediately what it is, what it is for, how to use it and how it can make his life a lot easier. But how to stand out when there are so many applications available and they are so easy to copy?

Best thing to do is to go back to the basics and check what people complain about. Very discussed complaint with the first iPhone in Europe was text messaging. In the US there is no limitation with the text messages and your service provider charges you the same whether you write 50 letters or 300 letters. In Europe the situation is not the same: the limit for one text message is 160 letters with spaces, which Nokia for example shows as 160/1. If you write 161 letters, you pay for two messages instead of one (161/2). The first iPhone did not show this detail and people had to write very short messages being afraid they will pass the one message limit. Maybe this kind of details cannot be used in advertising, but it can be addressed online and in sales speech.

Secondly, check what people are asking online during their research stage. What are the most popular key words? (example key words: Smartphone with “what”, iPhone with “what”) What people ask in message boards, blogs, microblogs, communities, social networks? (Which smartphone has “what”? Does iPhone have “what”?). What are your existing customers asking? Do some research.

Third thing to do is: ask. Do as Dell did after “Dell Hell”: create a platform where you can get users suggestions on how to improve your smartphone (or all smartphones). Then pick the most common/best opinions and do it.

Do not only listen to the “tech savvy” bloggers and users: smartphones are becoming mainstream. Forget the pixels and seduce the public by offering them what they really want.