Category Mobil
Mobile internet only captures about 1/3 of adults. Here’s the breakdown
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
The Pew Internet and American Life Project, introducing it’s new report on The Mobile Difference in today’s society, notes that in the early 1980s, Americans started spending more time on the telephone. From 1980 to 1987, the number of minutes spent on the phone increased by 24%, three times the rate of population growth. Though fax machines and the personal computing revolution might have spurred growth voice traffic, not more than 10% of the growth.
The cause was determined to be the telephone answering machine, in just 28% of homes in 1987. However, these new devices meant once-missed calls were returned and completed calls encouraged more calling. The answering machine served as an accelerant into Americans’ existing calling patterns.
In a similar way, says the author, mobile internet access is drawing people into more frequent online use. This finding is the cornerstone the Project’s study, finding that 39% of the adult population have seen the frequency of their online use grow as their reliance on mobile devices has increased.
Across those groups, there is a lot of variation on what these changes mean to users. Some find this extra connectivity a platform for self expression. Others are not entirely positive about ICTs’ (Information and Communication Technology) impacts on their lives.
In addition, there is 61% of the adult population who do not feel the pull of mobility further into the digital world. Across the groups that make up this part of the population, several have a lot of technology at hand and have seen their tech assets grow in recent years. Yet ICTs remain on the periphery in their lives, suggesting that:
Posted by Tom Polanski in Mobil on April 10th, 2009
BMW mobile campaign gets 30% conversion rate
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
We’re pleased to share this case study with you exactly as it was passed over to us by one of our strategic partners. Although mobile web browsing has been primitive; new smartphone models are providing better user experiences. The word on the street is that the Palm Pre will be a game changer. Meanwhile Apple is reportedly announcing an improved iPhone in mid-June with a faster browser. Although mobile usage represents only one percent of web usage, that’s twice what it was last year. In my opinion, the future is in mobile. Below is what BMW did to drive conversions via mobile with technologies in place today.
SUMMARY
The appeal of direct mail continues to decline as the prices of printing and mailing increase. What if there was a way to avoid the high costs without losing direct-response impact?
Find out how BMW Germany tested a mobile campaign to sell winter tires that achieved a 30.31% conversion rate. Includes a step-by-step guide and creative samples.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Advertising, Marketing, Mobil on April 2nd, 2009
Mobile web draws more eyeballs with continuing growth in smartphone sales
By Suzanne Choney
Maybe “mobile Web browsing” should be called “mobile Web squinting” considering what it takes to view the Internet using a cell phone. Yet, largely because of Apple’s iPhone and other smartphones such as the BlackBerry and Palm, more users are checking the Internet this way, and the importance of those browsers are growing.
At CTIA, the wireless industry’s trade show this week, expect chatter about the mobile browser “wars,” with Opera Mini, long popular in Europe, likely soon to have more of a presence in the United States, and a test mobile version of another challenger, Firefox, underway.
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, the dominant desktop Web browser for PCs, lags behind Apple’s Safari and Opera Mini in the mobile market. Company officials say improvements are coming to IE Mobile on new Windows-based phones due out later this year. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
In the meantime, Microsoft will launch a new test version of Windows Live Hotmail that can be used through a cell phone’s Web browser, and has an improved look and search features, the company said.
Also coming: a new Palm Web browser to match the slickness of the company’s Pre smartphone, due out mid-year.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Gadgets & Gear, Mobil on April 1st, 2009
Is the Internet finally killing TV?
Reprinted from the Christian Science Monitor
Is this the summer that the Internet finally kills television as we once knew it? Most industry observers are stopping short of that prediction, citing some significant hurdles still in the way.
But the growing number of new deals and new devices being announced suggests that a profound change in the way people watch video — and what video they watch — is under way.
The line between “television” and video via the Internet already has blurred and may disappear in coming years.
At least one industry analyst has declared “TV is dead” and welcomes Americans to a new age of video everywhere.
Increasingly, Americans are watching video when they want to, and on the screen that suits them at the time. And more programming is from new sources that threaten to unlock Hollywood’s domination of content.
Video is now delivered on displays and devices of every shape and size, from gigantic theater screens and ever-larger home projector screens to flat-screen HDTVs and from desktop and laptop computer monitors to tiny personal screens such as those found on iPods and mobile phones.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Mobil, New Advertising Media on August 18th, 2008