March » 2009 » mobilegroove

Regular readers will know and appreciate that I got the most out of my frequent flyer miles last year, speaking at over twenty industry events across three continents. This year, and with the help of Stuart Willett, Director, Business Development, MSG has reached a tipping point and I can focus on what I love most: Commenting on the industry and creating thought leadership in the form of white papers and research projects. In order to focus my efforts on these exciting new projects, I will not attend CTIA in Las Vegas this year. But nothing could keep me from speaking at ThinkMobile in New York (March 18-19). From the moment that Matthew Snyder - ThinkMobile Conference Chair and Founder & CEO of ADObjects, a strategic cross-media consultancy - contacted me to brainstorm on the program and speakers, I knew this event was going to set the bar. We not only identified individuals with something important to say; we also invited people we felt were most likely to make a lasting and significant contribution to the mobile industry. If you want to see the direction the industry is going, and connect with the people who are going to get us there, then this is THE event to attend. I hope to see you there, and if you want to catch-up or meet-up, then please reach out to me at peggy@msearchgroove.com - or schedule a slot with my PA Andrea Henninge (andrea@msearchgroove.com).

Regular readers will know and appreciate that I got the most out of my frequent flyer miles last year, speaking at over twenty industry events across three continents. This year, and with the help of Stuart Willett, Director, Business Development, MSG has reached a tipping point and I can focus on what I love most: Commenting on the industry and creating thought leadership in the form of white papers and research projects (I'm thinking here of Mobile Advertising U.K., a mobile advertising project undertaken by MSG together with AENEAS Consulting, and endorsed by the major mobile marketing organizations). In order to focus my efforts on these exciting new projects, I will not attend CTIA in Las Vegas this year. But nothing could keep me from speaking at ThinkMobile in New York (March 18-19). From the moment that Matthew Snyder - ThinkMobile Conference Chair and Founder & CEO of ADObjects, a strategic cross-media consultancy - contacted me to brainstorm on the program and speakers, I knew this event was going to set the bar. (I have known and highly respected Matthew for several years, dating back to the time that he was responsible for mobile search at Nokia. He has drawn on 20 years of experience and contacts to compile an impressive list of speakers, and the pieces are in place to be sure this inaugural event pushes the boundaries.) We not only identified individuals with something important to say; we also invited people we felt were most likely to make a lasting and significant contribution to the mobile industry. If you want to see the direction the industry is going, and connect with the people who are going to get us there, then this is THE event to attend.

Following up on a new report from Bernstein Research, I'm back with a closer examination of the research (which focuses on the U.S. market) and an exclusive podcast with Jeffrey Lindsay, senior analyst and lead author. My special thanks to Jeffrey for fitting this interview in between trips. A value-add in this particular podcast: Another perspective on the controversial question: What is the potential impact of a tie-up between Vodafone and Yahoo? Overall, the report is a good read. It covers all the bases, from mobile ad revenue predictions to estimates for mobile search revenues, and it recounts the results of a road test (Google vs. Yahoo) to determine (literally) which provider is getting more bang for the buck when it comes to paid search. Indeed, mobile search performance is at the top of my radar as Peggy Albright (founder of Albright Research and MSG associate) and I have just wrapped up a white paper comparing mobile voice services available on the iPhone. More importantly, we have moved into the final phase of our the Mobile Search Performance Report (MSPR), an industry-first quarterly report documenting the mobile search experience across a range of geographies, operators, and search engine providers, providing insight into the key performance metrics, such as click-distance and mobile advertising relevancy. While I may have my issues with some of the Bernstein report findings, there's no arguing the fact that Google controls a sizeable share of the U.S. mobile search market, and that despite the fact the search giant consistently delivers a poorer user experience (an observation based on MSPR findings as well as those reported by Mobile Commerce during a recent Mobile Search Master Class). Based on brand reach research (number of visitors to a search property divided by the estimated total of visitors ever to access the search category ever in a month) and comScore estimates (as reported in September 2008), Bernstein Research reckons Google had 62 percent of the U.S. market in January 2009. Yahoo came in second with 30 percent and Microsoft's Windows Live finished third with 11 percent. Listen to the podcast here. [19:21]

Wrapping up an exciting mobile search white paper project this week with Peggy Albright, founder of Albright Research and MSG research associate. We can't give away too much before the formal launch next week, but the research - which evaluates Google, Vlingo (Yahoo) and ChaCha - has also drawn our attention to social search, the Achilles heel of universal search engines Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. (In fact, a comparison between mobile answers/search services ChaCha and Google SMS, ChaCha achieved 70 percent of Google's SMS search volume in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to data from the Q4 Mobile Messaging Report from The Nielsen Company.) While a new report from Bernstein Research may argue that (at least in the US) Google wins the mobile search battle hands-down on the strength of its brand, I believe that other factors (specifically, the quality of the user experience and the tie-up between mobile search and mobile social networking), will pave the way for other companies (and business models). BTW: I am scheduled for a podcast interview this week with Jeffrey Lindsay, Senior Analyst, Bernstein Research, to discuss the key findings of his milestone report, Google, IAC, Yahoo!: Mobile Internet - the Next Advertising marathon - Google and Yahoo! Moving to Front of Pack. In the meantime, I recommend you read Dianne See Morrison's worthwhile summary post at MoCoNews. In my view, social search - search that enables people to add their personal knowledge, opinions, and experiences to search results - has arrived in full force in online. (The market is already teeming with people-powered search engines - ranging from Wikipedia, which recently took the wraps off Wikia, a search service that combines computer-driven algorithms and human-assisted editing to Mahalo, a company building - and paying - contributor communities to direct searchers to relevant results, to nimble newcomers like NosyJoe, a private beta social search engine that relies on people to "sniff the Web for interesting content.") The mobile phone - a personal device we have with us at all times - represents the next frontier for social search.

After collecting a slew of stats for my recent presentation on the state of the mobile Web (at the invitation of Qualcomm), as well as background for my upcoming mobile search white papers and on-going mobile advertising projects (such as Mobile Advertising U.K.), I am well aware of the importance of critical and credible data points. To make the numbers easy to find, and even easier to understand, I will collect and share them here on a regular basis. U.K. MOBILE INTERNET: A new report from eMarketer - true to its name always an excellent source of mobile marketing stats and insights. U.K. Mobile Internet connects the dots in mobile user behavior. How many users are there? Between just 7.2 million and 17.4 million, depending on the report you read. But the report conclusion is hardly subject to interpretation: The mobile Web is "gaining ground in the U.K., and soon the audience will be large and broad enough to interest mainstream advertisers." Key drivers: iPhone and similar high-end devices, cool new apps, and improved usability. Still, more of the same are sorely needed to increase the number of people using the mobile Web.

A look at some new stats and observations from Bango. The news: The U.S. pulls ahead of the U.K. in mobile content browsing and payments. Overall, payments to content providers continue to be high, indicating that mobile content is selling well despite the economic slowdown. The findings are based on Bango's birds-eye view of browsing behavior and mobile transactions across 1,811 devices and 208 countries in February 2009. (By way of background, Bango provides real-time mobile analytics and collects mobile payments in over 150 countries worldwide.) For a complete list of the top 10 countries in both mobile browsing and mobile payments for February 2009 (hot off the presses!), check out the Bango Briefing Room here. Speaking of stats, this recent blog post underlines the pivotal role of mobile analytics in developing truly targeted mobile campaigns. As it points out: Most analytics products only update publishers/advertisers on traffic trends daily/weekly/monthly. But that doesn't cut it when it comes to uncovering the hour by hour breakdown of traffic, granular detail that can mean the difference between campaign success and failure. Indeed, hourly access to analytics also allows advertisers/publishers to fine-tune their campaigns, and change content throughout the day based on the time of day.