September » 2011 » mobilegroove

Mobile is huge. And so is the value marketers and companies can wring out of a comprehensive mobile strategy that starts with a mobile-optimized website. Still, there is a disturbing disconnect between the number of consumers that research (and buy!) products on the move, and the number of businesses that have invested in a mobile-optimized website to satisfy their customer requirements. What's the hold up? Richard Edwards surveyed mobile authorities and practitioners to get the answers.

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Are businesses mobile ready? A look at new research from Google and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) -- conducted by Ipsos GmbH and TNS Infratest -- should have alarm bells ringing. Only a fraction of businesses in the five countries surveyed report having mobile optimized sites. The break down is even more of an eye-opener: US - 33 percent, U.K. - 17 percent, France - 12 percent, Germany - 37 percent, and Japan - 43 percent.

Mobile devices have become nearly as commonplace as toothpaste for travelers in North America and Europe. Like the true road warriors we are, we take our wireless gear with us wherever we go -- and our use of them is unprecedented.

According to new data from Boingo Wireless, a leading provider of software and services worldwide, smartphones and tablets passed laptops as the most widely carried Wi-Fi device in airports, reaching 58.9 percent of all devices in June. Mobile devices topped the 50 percent mark for the first time in February of this year. The study draws from data across Boingo’s managed network of 60 airports and aggregated network of hundreds of thousands of hotspots worldwide.

Mobile is global. Mobile must be aligned with our needs, not technology. Mobile sits at the center of a strategy to 'engage at every stage.' Mobile has caused and enabled irrevocable changes in our behavior. Effective mobile marketing requires a sharp focus on four mindsets: 1) I'm local. 2) I'm bored. 3) I'm multitasking. 4) I need it NOW.

These are some of the observations and opinions voiced by a few of the just over 100 professionals, practitioners and passionates who made our first Tweetchat an invigorating exchange and a rousing success. Tweetreach, for example, reports we reached nearly 107,000 people via just under 600 tweets to

For years, tech influencers and bloggers have been accused of being blindly in love with Apple. There is even a name these devotees: fanboys. These men and women live to gush about Apple products and bash Microsoft and others in the process. So it was remarkable to observe the tech influencers this week in their near unanimous approval of Microsoft’s new operating system.

This headline on msnbc.com stopped me cold: Windows 8 Does What Apple Doesn’t. Talk about an about-face.

With the MMA Forum (London, October 4-5)-- the premiere mobile marketing knowledge and networking event organized by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) -- just three weeks away, MobileGroove brings industry authorities and pundits together to debate the hot trends and topics moving up the global brands agenda.

Grab a pew at the MMA Tweetchat (September 20) and follow the edgy and informative exchange with Paul Berney, MMA CMO, and Tomi Ahonen, independent consultant, influential blogger and seven-time best-selling author.

How can the charitable sector can leverage mobile to connect with the public and collect donations on a massive scale? We talk with Andrew Darling, Associate Director of Market Development at OpenMarket, a company providing payment and messaging services to mobile retail and commerce clients worldwide. OpenMarket is also a driving force in efforts to help charities put together the approaches and platforms that will allow them to take donations and connect with the people who give to relief efforts and causes around the world.

The benefits and the business models around mobile are the topic of Empowering the Charitable Sector with Interactive Technology II (September 15, London). The all-day knowledge seminar organized by AIME (the Association for Interactive media & Entertainment) is already standing room only (!), an unexpectedly high attendance that tells us the topic strikes a chord with charities, advertising & marketing agencies, service providers, broadcasters, industry bodies and mobile operators--all the players that need to come together and work together to maximize the potential for all kinds of charities to use mobile.