Apple, which endorses near field communication technology, will likely integrate NFC into the next version of its operating system -- allowing consumers to make contactless purchases and advertisers to serve up content and ads on mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad, according to Richard Doherty, research director of consulting firm Envisioneering Group, a technology assessment and market consultancy. Google announced plans late last year to integrate NFC into its Android operating system Gingerbread. There's no better way to grab a piece of mobile commerce. Forrester Research suggests that mobile marketing spend will surpass $1 billion as consumers spend billions via mobile devices. Speculation had pointed to Apple choosing a proprietary contactless technology that allows consumers to make electronic payments, but economics and U.S. antitrust issues make it unlikely, Doherty says. "Anyone who says they know for certain Apple's product plans is lying to you," he explains. "We have strong reason to believe their NFC endorsement will lead to use." Doherty believes Apple will integrate NFC with iOS to support the technology across many of its products. He bases that conclusion on spending numerous hours in "boring standards meetings" pertaining to wireless technologies to stay informed. "We spoke with people at companies in Taiwan, China and Japan who work on products they expect Apple to launch," Doherty says. "Some of them hope to become contractors and subcontractors. They do the work already. Not just for Apple, but hope Google and others will come along." Doherty explains that contract manufacturers such as Foxconn build products in hopes of getting a congratulatory email or phone call from Apple and others awarding them the contract to build the devices. It's quite typical, he says. Apple buys products from a half-dozen Wi-Fi chip suppliers, but none know until a few weeks or months, at best, prior to the product release that they have been selected. Evidently it's one way the Cupertino, Calif. company keeps supply chain processes under wraps.
It's no surprise that finding nearby restaurants and dining options is one of the ways that people use their mobile phones. Everyone's got to eat, right? New findings from a broader mobile study last year by Yahoo and Nielsen, however, aim to shed more light on the connection between cell phones and eating out (or ordering in). For starters, about 34 million Americans get dining and restaurant information from a mobile device. That audience skews young, with more than half falling between the ages of 13 and 34. They tend to have high incomes -- $87,000 per year -- while more than half are married and 41% have one or more children. A majority (58%) identified themselves as suburban. To find dining information, 82% said they used search, with 68% going through their mobile browser and 17% through an app. About a third of respondents (34%) remembered seeing a dining ad on their mobile device, and most of those (77%) "sometimes" or "always" looked at it. Naturally, most (67%) said they were looking for options in their area, and 77% said they preferred ads to be "relevant to my current location." But most weren't looking for three-star restaurants. Nearly half (49%) were interested in casual sit-down dining (at popular chains such as Chili's, Applebee's and Olive Garden), while 30% wanted fast food such as McDonald's or Subway. Only 23% expressed interest in getting information on fine dining (places like Morton's Steakhouse and McCormick & Schmick). "The data shows an evolution," says Edwin Wong, Yahoo director of market research, in a Yahoo blog post Monday. "Before, it was the early adopters and 'foodies' who were driving toward fine dining and niche dining experiences, with users accessing sites like Yelp.com. As mobile usage has grown, we're seeing more interest in mass market dining info. That's a trend we expect to continue." It also makes sense that if people are already on the go, using their phones to find a place to eat, they're more likely to opt for McDonald's or Applebee's, rather than an upscale restaurant requiring a reservation. "When on the go, people often make dining decisions spontaneously, according to the Yahoo/Nielsen study. "They do a little research, usually taking no more than a few minutes to come to a decision." Wong noted that adding click-to-call was one of the best ways to help users connect instantly with a restaurant or place a takeout order. Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed (61%) had an interest in this feature. More broadly, the study recommends that restaurants should optimize their sites to answer questions users are likely to ask about menus, location, nutritional information and deals. Those considerations should also be extended to search and social media efforts.
The Apple iPad and iPhone may have captivated consumers and the tech trade press, but Apple's mobile iAd platform still doesn't rank particularly high in the minds of most advertisers, according to a new survey of ad agencies by Strata. The findings were especially noteworthy because of the stark contrast with the devices themselves, which have definitely captured advertisers' interest. There's no question that Apple devices cut a high profile among ad agencies and clients, according to the Strata survey, with 80% of agencies saying they're interesting in advertising on the iPhone, and 31% expressing interest in the iPad. But at the same time, 90% of ad agency respondents said their advertising clients had not asked them to execute campaigns using iAd -- which allows advertisers to create and deliver ads alongside apps downloaded from Apple's mobile app store -- or other new platforms, such as Apple TV and Google TV. Turning to other media categories, the Strata survey held few surprises, with 79% of agencies saying they will use Facebook in their social media campaigns, followed by Twitter with 46%. However, TV still gets the lion's share of attention, with 44% of advertisers saying it is their most important medium, followed by online, mobile and other digital, at just over 21%. At the same time, 78% of respondents said digital was getting more attention this year than previously. Asked about the general business environment, 51% of agency respondents said their business is increasing, while one quarter expect clients to spend more on advertising in 2011. The first figure is close to the results of a separate survey by Alterian, which found that 49% of agency and marketing services respondents expect business to increase in 2011.
The prospect of waving your cell phone at a checkout card reader to make a purchase has been something akin to a sex dream in the mobile industry for nearly a decade or more. It doesn't take much thought to see the possibilities and interconnections that the mobile wallet allows, from a massive new sales revenue stream for someone in the chain, to back-end integration with targeted marketing efforts and CRM. Putting the phone into the purchase stream so directly has the potential to change the game for everyone in the mobile ecology. The technology for the Near Field Communications system that makes contactless payments possible and easily integrated with cell phones has been ready for a while. The widespread distribution of the technology -- and perhaps consumer comfort with the concept -- have not. And when it comes to getting NFC onto phones... well, the usual herd of cats that is the U.S. wireless industry has never been easily corralled. Note the ridiculously fragmented state of the 2D code industry. Bloomberg reports today that Apple may be poised to jumpstart the NFC payment market by incorporating the technology into the next generation of iPhones. According to a consulting firm that claims knowledge of what engineers at Apple are working on, the next version of the device for AT&T is expected to sport NFC. Bloomberg is reporting that the NFC technology will likely be included in both the next generations of iPhone and iPads that are rolling out this year. If so, then this is good news and bad news. The good news is that it is Apple. No one polishes and popularizes existing mobile market concepts like Apple. From the smartphone itself to apps to mobile video to video chat, the company has gone mass market with early-adopter technologies that gadget geeks like me spent years simply diddling with. Imagine the influence of Apple TV ads demonstrating purchases with the wave of the iPhone. Imagine the number of retailers who would want to be on stage with Tim Cook or (one would hope) Steve Jobs for that rollout. The bad news is that it is Apple: the obsessive-compulsive control freak of modern American culture. Before anyone gets too starry-eyed about an NFC-enabled smartphone with Apple's hype machine behind it, let's not forget the iAd. Apple is not shy about insinuating itself into other people's models and creative processes - and driving business "partners" crazy. What level of control would the company exert on the m-commerce value chain? How much does it want to disintermediate the credit card companies? The Bloomberg reporting says that Apple is considering erecting its own payment system and has even prototyped payment terminals. The long-range plan is to integrate m-commerce with loyalty card programs and even targeted advertising. Apple would be the intermediary for a range of relationships and payment systems that have a number of incumbent players with billions of existing investments to protect. Even for Apple, dominating the contactless payment world is a tall order. The math is tough. Whatever Apple's iPhone and iPad sales success, the devices still represent a small sliver of the market. And Android is gaining fast. The turf war over apps and mobile OS we have seen in the last year is nothing compared to what we will see if NFC payments get tossed into the mix. Google's Nexus S from Samsung already sports NFC technology, and Android is in a much better position now than it was a year ago to marshal support among companies that Apple pisses off. Like everything else in the wireless industry that requires standardization to take flight, NFC payment is going to take a good long time to proliferate. I am still standing regularly behind folks at the grocery check-out just figuring out how to use their debit card. The possibilities for NFC payment on phones are delicious for marketers, however. Last week I tested Starbuck's payment card app that lets me debit my card for a purchase straight from the iPhone. Imagine if that process was made several steps shorter by embedded NFC. Then imagine the data tied to an instantly redeemable coupon for an Apple Fritter (oh, I love their fritters) that popped up through a mobile alert? Or if that data is tied to in-app ad serving -- and knows not only what, but where and when I buy? And knows that I am a sucker for a fritter? How much would you pay (or bid?) for the iAd that targets me based on those parameters -- and can hit me as I approach the purchase point? In some ways, NFC is less a game-changer than it is the end game that digital media has been aiming for in the last two decades. To take the marketing technologies and targeting capabilities of digital media and put them into the consumers' world as they live, decide and buy, is the fundamental power and promise of mobile. But a part of me hopes the wireless industry's endemic fragmentation, in-fighting, and allergic response to standardization will keep this next great age at bay for a while. Because I really can't resist a fritter.
Based on a composite cross sampling of 155.3 million emails sent across 12 industry segments in the 4th quarter of 2010, a new Knotice study finds that 13.36% of emails are opened by a mobile operating system or device, and the balance on a desktop. The report suggests that the most intuitive and useful way to look at mobile data for summary purposes is technically blending devices (iPhone and iPad) with operating systems (Android), OS and browsers. The table of "opens" by device, mapped in that fashion, looks like this: Emails Opened by Device (% of Total) % of Total OpensMobile iPhone 8.74% iPad 2.00 Android 1.92 Windows 0.31 Blackberry 0.15 Palm 0.25 Total 13.36 Desktop Windows 70.27% Mac 16.19 Linux 0.18 Total 86.64 Source: Knotice, January 2011 The report shows that the iPhone clearly dominates in terms of email interaction, even as the number of Android devices in-market surpasses iPhones in the latter part of 2010. With the recent Verizon announcement bringing iPhone 4 to their network, it will be interesting to see if this domination continues, or grows, says the report writer. The level of email interaction from Android devices isn't tracking with its overall market penetration. The very low email interaction rate for BlackBerry devices, surprising considering their market share and legions of enterprise users, may be a result of the default text-only email rendering BlackBerry is known for, observes the report. Like traditional email open reporting, mobile opens are recorded when images are downloaded, so viewing text-only email may mask the true interaction levels. The report concludes that, though the iPad already shows the second-highest level of email interaction, tablet users may be a different animal altogether, who may be accessing email as a replacement for, not a supplement to, a desktop experience. Breaking down the summary by specific industry segment, it's important to note how much customer behavior and the brand relationship influences the penetration of mobile in the email channel by industry segment. A much smaller percentage of people read business-to-business emails from their mobile device as compared to emails from retailers, or information from financial services where there is a deeper, more personal brand relationship. Mobile Email Opens by Industry SegmentsIndustry% of Total Opens Association 9.05% B2B 3.03% Cable & Telco 12.03% Consumer Product 14.11% Consumer Service 15.61% Education 10.21% Entertainment 7.63% Financial Services 19.38% Health Care 10.81% Hospitality 15.74% Other 10.01% Retail 20.08% Source: Knotice, January 2011 The ratio of mobile activity spikes noticeably in the early-morning hours, between 5 and 8am, as mobile phone users are waking up and checking email before starting their day. Mobile email opening activity drops during the traditional working hours where consumers are more engaged with a desktop device, with a slight peak in activity between 4pm and 5pm. Activity dips during the traditional dinner and early prime-time hours, with a final spike from 10pm to midnight. The report opines that sending email in the very early morning, as many marketers do, may determine an increase in the ratio of mobile interactions as consumers scan their inbox first thing in the morning, in contrast to an email delivered mid-day where more consumers are more likely to view the email in a traditional desktop setting. The study finds, says the report, that the percent of all email opens occurring on mobile devices by state yields some interesting and potentially surprising results. Common sense says the ratio of mobile interaction with email may be much higher in coastal states and larger, metropolitan markets, which holds true in states like California, Texas, Illinois, New York and New Jersey, but does not successfully account for the equally high percentages of mobile interaction seen in states like New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Indiana and Alaska. The report concludes by saying that "... it is clear that marketers need to understand the demographic profile of their opt-in email list and make informed decisions on mobile-optimization of email based on (the variables noted,) as opposed to geography alone... " Please visit Knotice here to access the full PDF file with more details and explanatory charts.
An increase in consumer spending via mobile phones through emerging technologies such as near field communication (NFC), a technology Google and others continue to invest in, will push advertisers to spend more than $1 billion on mobile marketing campaigns in the U.S. this year, according to a study released by Forrester Research. With the confirmed Facebook acquisition on Tuesday of Rel8tion, a Seattle-based startup working to develop a local mobile advertising service, I'm sure marketers wonder if that billion dollar number will jump higher. Forrester's 2008 forecast put media spend for mobile display ads and search at $561 million in 2010, and then last year the research firm increased that prediction to $815.9 million. Analysts at the research firm might not have known at the time they wrote the report that Apple has begun to work with NFC, adding one more tech and media powerhouse to the mix of companies that will likely integrate the technology into their mobile phones and devices. While I had originally thought Apple would develop its own contactless technology for the iPad and the iPhone, "no," says Richard Doherty, research director at consulting firm Envisioneering Group, a technology assessment and market consultancy. He's convinced Apple will use NFC. The conclusion made after many of Envisioneering's employees spent hours in "boring standards meeting" to keep informed. Forrester believes NFC will prompt consumers to interact with their physical environment more often. "The market will finally move away from the trial stage in regions where NFC infrastructure is in place," according to the report. "Barriers such as consumer demand, market education, and business model issues need to be removed for the market to really take off. Other technologies such as QR codes and mobile augmented reality (AR) apps will also prompt consumers to hold up their smartphones to interact with the world around them." Finally, marketers will find quantifiable return on investments (ROIs), as more realize mobile marketing can generate leads, drive foot traffic into stores, and sell products and services. Smartphone adoption is growing and with it activities associated with PCs, such as researching products, booking hotels, trading stocks, finding nearby restaurants, or browsing the Internet, according to the report. Mobile marketing also will give marketers better targeting techniques through location and search behavior. The report suggests the technology squashes complaints that marketers can't reach consumers through a variety of mobile mediums. Forrester believes search engines like Google will still play a key role for consumers as a source of information. I agree that with consumers doing less browsing on mobile phones than they do on their PCs, searchers will turn to vertical apps. The only problem is will they find those vertical apps in the mounds of those available in app stores? Mobile marketing dollars will near $2.8 billion, with mobile search and display each representing 6% of interactive marketing spend in 2015 as marketers get their footing in the rapidly growing mobile market, according to the Forrester report. It goes on to suggest that with 36% of total U.S. consumers expected to use the mobile Internet by 2015, mobile search and display advertising spend will increase despite considerable challenges.
When MTV launched oh so many years ago, the genuine revolution in music creation and consumption opened with the Buggles' catchy and clever "Video Killed the Radio Star." The self-styled launch of a new model for music video apps arrived this week with a much less promising ante -- the Black-Eyed Peas' BEP360. I admit that I am the last one to criticize anyone's musical taste. My family complains regularly that I have to revise the playlist on the iPod that runs through the car stereo, "because the Keith Richards' guitar opening to 'Street Fighting Man' stopped being cool fifty plays ago," they like to say. "There has been a lot of good music made in the last four decades, Dad." Yeah, okay, but BEP's "The Time (Dirty Bit)" is not among the classics I have missed. That single and video form the core of band member will.i.am's BEP360 app for iPhone/iPod and iPad. Purporting to represent the next stage in music video formats and distribution, the app has a 360-degree view music video. That means that the apps use the internal compass on the iOS devices to let you shift the view on the video as it plays to give the viewer a kind of surround screen effect. One can imagine the effect being put to creative use, while that isn't the case here. Generally we just get multiple screens of the BEP crew singing their parts and different views of the obligatory dancing crowd. A couple of twists of the iPhone or iPad and you see about all that is interesting to see. But imagine if one of the more creative narrative-driven videos of old were done with the 360-effect. We could see characters reacting to new people come into the room and then swivel our view to see what they are seeing? The BEP360 app, which sells for $2.99, is less apt to redefine the music video than it is to open a new mode for artist singles. This first production from will.i.am's will.i.apps media company pours other media into the mix that creates a more convincing, value-added single. The iPhone app has an augmented reality component that you aim at BEP's latest record cover to see a dancing will.i.am cartoon superimposed on the scene. The 360 effect is used to show a photo shoot of the BEP members. A BEP Twitter feed aggregates the postings from the band members. And you can access user-uploaded geo-tagged images made from the app by others via a globe interface. The app execution is neater than the music video at its core. The app demonstrates one way that the music industry can start leveraging the technology to deliver more engagement and value to fans. Now if they could just start making good music.