Check out the latest Carnival of the Mobilists at Justin Oberman’s MOpocket.

Some fine writing about mobile from around the web, as always.

One of my predictions for 2006 was that we’d start to see a real thaw in the mobile marketing winter. Finally, more and more brands would begin to use the marketing channel after the chill of the last 5 years.

Three months on and I still think this is the year, as there’s both a lot of talk and some real action in the market.

According to emarketer, a survey by Marketing Sherpa found that mobile tied with video in the top spot in a list of tactics that marketers would like to experiment with. This beats RSS, blogs and podcasting, for instance.

Interestingly, creating branded content was towards the bottom of the list, which is where many agencies are currently focusing their plans to rescue themselves as the 30 second TV ad dies. Maybe branded content is the wrong lifeboat for this sinking ship and just perhaps mobile may be the one that’ll get you to the shore.

When the same people were asked about actual spending, a slightly different picture emerges - the survey happened in December actually.

Mobile again goes to the top in terms of what they would be spending money on (the red bars), alongside such things as in-house and sponsored Podcasts, with current mobile spending losing out to blogging and RSS.

The survey was featured in MagnaGlobal’s report into mobile - MagnaGlobal are on of the big media agencies and part of Interpublic. Interestingly, their conclusion was that mobile video advertising would be the winner (although I haven’t seen the original report). As David Wiser explains:

“….we expect that advertising will ultimately play an important role in the mobile video world. The best opportunities to market to consumers in mobile environments will be through integrated mobile communications devices, and the industry will likely require ad-support to reach the widest possible audience.”

I’m sure mobile video and subsidised content will be important, but I would argue that it’s only part of the answer. There are other techniques that will have a place at the table and to see mobile as a small TV screen, as a medium and a business model, could be dangerous.

Declaration: I’m currently in talks with several mobile marketing/ mobile advertising companies about joining them. This hasn’t influenced this post in any way, but you should know the background. I’ll let you know if anything happens.

- EU bans roaming charges: what impact in world of dual phone subscriptions (Communities Dominate Brands)

- Cyworld to Annex the U.S. (Red Herring)

- Dial Denmark for saturation (AFP)

- Nokia raises 2006 cellphone market forecast (Reuters)

- Flickr off (Chris Heathcote)

- AllTunes.mobile - music download service (All About Symbian)

- 3G reality - part 2 (Jupiter)

Just wanted to bounce an idea off you.

I’ve recently been doing a lot of listening to PodCasts, what with more travelling and the snow here finally melting, allowing a little jogging again. However, if you want to listen to tech or business ones, there’s very little choice outside maybe 5 or so I’ve found, like:

The Gilmour Gang
This Week in Tech
Chris Pirillo
The Mobile Media Show

So, first question, does anyone have any recommendations?

Secondly, Carlo and I were talking over getting into the Podcasting game in a small way. Our first service would be to make available a weekly audio version of the blog - in other words teaming up with someone who likes to play around with Podcasts, who would read what we’d written and make it avialble as an audio download.

While this might sound boring, this is pretty much how news is consumed on the radio and TV. And if you’re too busy to read MobHappy as much as you’d like, it could be an ideal way to get more of it, especially if the reader was good.

What do you think? Would you use it or is it a waste of time? Does anyone know if other blogs do this or have tried it?

Finally, if you fancy yourself as an aspiring Podcaster and want to give this a go, get in touch and you never know where it might lead.

Cheers

Russell

During SXSW, I ran into Scott Dudelson, who’s putting on premium SMS-based fundraiser for the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund. Justin over at MoPocket has a thorough rundown on Scott and the project, so check that out for more info on what he’s doing, but the basic idea is that people text “HEAL” to the shortcode 50555, and get a message back confirming they want to donate the $4.99 via their phone bill, and they’re then entered in the “Sweepstakes of Swag”, a drawing for some music memorabilia. Nothing revolutionary to our global readers, but it’s one of the first initiatives of its kind here in the US.

What struck me about Scott’s plan — apart from how widely it could be used — is the cost element. With content providers always complaining about how much of their revenues they have to give up to operators for reverse billing, a percentage-based system could hit charitable programs like this especially hard. What makes the problem more glaring is that the operators’ costs don’t scale in line with the consumer cost of the SMS. While one might argue the risk involved in fronting a consumer the $1.99 for a ringtone until their bill is due at the end of the month is less than the $4.99 from the Sweet Relief fundraiser, I’m not sure how much I’d agree.

This is where new mobile payment systems like PayPal come into the frame, exploiting the need for a more equitable revenue-sharing system. As I’ve said before, the impact will either come from PayPal making headway in the space, or by forcing operators to lower their cut. It seems especially egregious in this case since it’s a charitable offering — is there anybody out there than can speak to how non-US operators deal with this sort of thing?

[tags]paypal, sweet relief, shortcodes[/tag]

- Handsets get taken to the grave (BBC)

- Motorola RAZR Still Dominating US Handset Sales (cellular-news)

- Motorola RAZR Doubles Market Share to Acquire Lead in Europe (Telephia)

- NTT DoCoMo preps army-style music phone (Reg Hardware)

The Apple iPhone rumor is played out. Unless you’ve got something real to show us, shut up about it. We’ve hit the point where even year-old rumors are getting recycled, and “analysts” are piling on with their own predictions in an attempt to look with it.

The latest comes from one saying the iPhone “Launch Is Imminent”, and that it will launch on the forthcoming Helio MVNO in the US because “There exists a relationship between Apple and Helio management that goes back to the ROKR iTunes phone” — yeah, that’s a great relationship to cite right there.

The next reason? The iPod and Helio share a target market — of course, so does nearly every other MVNO. The kicker? “Helio’s top rank executives have also publicly voiced frustration with mainstream carriers and appear to be on a crusade to radically shake-up the industry.” Sorry, I’ve been asleep for a while, but isn’t that the point of their MVNO model?

The analyst adds the device will be made in South Korea by an existing handset manufacturer (despite Apple’s use of Chinese and Taiwanese OEMs) and “will likely be as disruptive to the existing carrier market as the iPod was to the mobile music industry”. Adding VoIP capability will make it “even more disruptive to carriers”, just as will adding any more buzzwords. Of course, should you find the argument convincing, they’ll be happy to sell you their upcoming “Apple in Wireless” report.

In case you’ve got the few grand to burn, drop me an email and I’ll put together a bunch of links with all the net speculation and photoshopped images that’s got just as much chance of being right about things as this analyst. Probably even more so, since I’m not married to the Helio angle. Tell you what, if it will make you feel better to have a particular company or carrier tied to the iPhone, I can just make something up myself with some random justification, print it here on MobHappy, then include the link as well. Just for an extra 500.

The iPhone is coming. Maybe. And I’m enthusiastic about the possibility and excited to see what’s in store. But I want to know what Apple’s take on the mobile phone is, not some Mac fanboy with too much time on their hands, or an analyst firm trying to drum up some business.

[tags]apple, iphone, helio[/tags]

Opera’s been on a little tear recently, announcing licensing deals with a number of carriers, and yesterday, with three mobile content companies (via MocoNews that will distribute it in various places around the world. Also included in yesterday’s announcement was price-comparison service PriceRunner, with the comment “The US-based Price Runner will actively promote and distribute Opera Mini to give its users mobile access to its online product and price comparison services.”

Opera says the companies can customize Mini to reflect their branding, and add their own bookmarks and content — which takes it from being just a browser to becoming their own application, with the added bonus of delivering customers a better mobile Internet experience to boot. Opera’s done much of the heavy lifting by making Mini work across a wide range of Java mobiles, and simplified development by letting content providers develop in the Web environment they’re used to and familiar with.

This is pretty cool — common complaints about mobile development from Web developers are that it uses technologies with which they’re not familiar, and it creates results that vary across handsets. Opera seems to have done a pretty solid job of minimizing those problems, and provides companies and content providers a platform on which to build a branded experience. It’s another good example of platform thinking — taking something relatively straightforward, like a web browser, and turning it into something greater.

This is a pretty compelling solution for content providers looking to quickly and easily create their own branded application. It may not offer the same functionality as having a dedicated, native Java or smartphone app, but there are plenty of content providers that aren’t so interested in taking the time or expense to go that route. This is a development that makes the technical issues of mobile web design less of a barrier, and lets content providers focus on other conceptual — and hopefully it won’t be the last one.

[tags]opera, mobile web, mobile design, pricerunner[/tags]

Fellow blogger and Big Cheese in mobile at Yahoo!, Russell Beattie, has written us an open letter on his much visited site saying we should lighten up here at MobHappy:

Hey!

What’s the deal with you guys lately!?!? I expect constant cynicism and skepticism from TechDirt Wireless, but MobHappy? I mean the name of your site ends in HAPPY… you know, as in, “Hey, this is a really fun market!,” and “Thank goodness we’re lucky enough to work in such an exciting, constantly new, on the brink of changing the world-type industry,” and “I’m so HAPPY to be in mobiles!”… Yeah? You know?

I mean, come on! You guys are as bitter as old crones. What happened? Did you short Qualcomm stock? Did Motorola’s browser give you a 413 error? Were you disappointed that Toothing wasn’t real? Do you not get enough Java in your BREW? Does your operator still have a walled garden?
Is trying to remember Nokia’s product numbers driving you crazy? Did the price of of your favorite ringtone service just go up? Did you expect that MMS was going to take over the world, or are your thumbs just tired from all that texting and it’s making you grumpy? Are you just sick and tired of typing out SonyEricsson and wondering what BenQ really stands for? Is that it? Really! Lighten up! This is an incredible time to be
involved in mobility! This stuff is great!

Seriously, you don’t *always* have to find the negative side to every news story or announcement (it’s a real bummer), and you don’t have to buy into the hype either. There’s a nice balance there somewhere, I’m sure.

Just a thought.

-Russ

P.S. This letter is so amusing to me, I’m going to make it open.

We hope that this proves, once and for all, that Russell Beattie and Russell Buckley aren’t the same person! But seriously, Russ, thanks for the feedback.

What we try to do here at MobHappy is to reach some sort of balance about the mobile world.

We aren’t analysts producing reports that we want to sell to companies that they can use to sell their products. This means that we don’t have to make wild predictions and hype the market, just so our clients will buy our reports as evidence about what great opportunities lie ahead.

Equally, we’re not here to try to sell you something and convince you that mobile and everything about it is the coolest thing ever and we’ll all be millionaires next year.

MobHappy tries to be the voice of reason in a mobile world that’s hard to understand. There’s enough people out there talking up the market for their own ends and we believe that sometimes a non-partisan approach is required.

And one of our particular aims is to tell it like it is (or as we see it anyway) to entrepreneurs coming into mobile. Unbias advice is really hard to come by if you’re an entrepreneur and some genuine constructive criticism at an early stage can save you heartache and cash down the line. The last thing you need to hear is that your idea is fantastic and can’t be improved - and if that is the case, we’ll tell you.

Having said all that, we’re as passionate about mobile as anyone - that’s why we write here at MobHappy. We’re as excited as anyone about the mobile adventure, whether you take the big picture or getting our hands on a new Sony Ericsson W900i (hint to any SE people reading).

Anyway, Russ has given us an excellent opportunity to ask you what you think. Are we curmudgeons, or realists? If we’re curmudgeons, do you like it anyway? Should we try to accentuate the positive or be a source of criticism? Are we too negative? Is there anything else you’d like to get off your chest? Please leave a comment, even if you don’t normally do so. We’ve love to know what you think.

Cheers

Russell and Carlo

Stefan Eriksson just can’t catch a break. The beleaguered Ex-Gizmondo boss has run into another spot of bother, as Beverly Hills police Sunday confiscated his Mercedes SLR. Officers pulled the car, driven by Eriksson’s wife, over Sunday after its European license plates caught their eye. They then found that Eriksson’s wife didn’t have a drivers’ license, nor was the car actually registered in the US.

This, of course, is the SLR that Scotland Yard had said earlier was stolen — at the same time it was reported that the ill-fated Enzo may have been exported to the US in an attempt to keep it from being repossessed. I’m no criminal genius, but I’d think that after all the attention this case has gotten, it would probably be best not to be driving around an unregistered $400,000 car without a driver’s license. But hey, that’s just me.

Spong reports that Eriksson is expected to face deportation proceedings should he be hit with charges of DWI and filing a false police report.

(Photo from 13-year-old car buff Spyder Dobrofsky, who happened to be at the scene)

[tags]gizmondo, eriksson, enzo, slr[/tags]