Xellular Identity - All About Mobile Content & Marketing

Carnival of the Mobilists No. 122 is Here

Welcome to the 122th edition of carnival of the mobilists! One of the things that I like best about the Carnival, or hosting it, is that it provides me with the opportunity to take a moment and read some very well written and interesting ideas about the mobile world. So sit comfortably and get ready for a blast of the best mobile writing of the week :)

Let's start with my pick for the best post of the week: this week’s Post of the Week is sponsored by AdMob, the world’s largest mobile advertising network. Our winner will receive a $100 coupon for mobile advertising with AdMob. Take advantage of this opportunity to drive traffic to your mobile site. This week’s winner is Tomi T. Ahonen from Communities Dominate Brands who published a though piece on Mobile as 7th Mass Media. Really worth the reading!

Mobile Advertizing

Andrew Grill asks if we're "walking the talk" when it comes to mobile advertising, and explains how he was able to become a mobile advertiser and publisher overnight, enabling him to walk the talk when it comes to mobile advertising.

Paul Ruppert at Mobile Point View contributes a podcast interview with Laura Marriott, President of the Mobile Marketing Association. Go listen to Paul’s interview with Laura covering her disappointment regarding the lack of significant mobile marketing announcements at CTIA, predictions on the growth of the mobile advertising market and how she dances between the legs of elephants!

Mobile Payment and Plans

Karen Webster from Catalyst Code takes a deeper dive into mobile payment and into why there are only 400,000 contactless terminals worldwide - a tiny sliver of all merchants - and why that differs from past experiences.

Dennis from WAP Review takes a look on AT&T’s $20 per month unlimited data plan Pay As You GO

Mobile – the Future

Ajit Jaokar from Open Gardens seeks for your input regarding which mobile/Wireless legislation is needed?

Judy Breck from Golden Swamp covers innovating news about a professor of mechanical engineering who developed a new device that uses mobile phones to make medical imaging much cheaper and more accessible to the poor.

Mobile Resources

James from Mjelly lists web forums that cover the mobile arena and provide experts knowledge.

Chetan Sharma from Always on Real-Time Access publishes a white paper covering the patenting process, written by Carlos Villamar and Chetan Sharma.

Mobile Content and Aplications

Jamie Wells from Mobilestance covers an activist-focused initiative that opens door for innovative marketing applications. Fluid Nexus, a decentralized (peer-to-peer) mobile messaging application that runs over Bluetooth, promises to do for SMS what Napster did for the .mp3 - democratize a key distribution channel by decoupling the medium from the message.

Michael Mace from Mobile Opportunity reviews a series of changes to Adobe’s free mobile flash application.

Igor Faletski from mobscure shares what kind of mobile content excites people.

Mobile Messaging

Barbara Ballard from Little Springs Designs makes an interesting point about the difference of the US, European and Japanese markets for SMS and voice.

Mobile Handsets

Ben Scott-Robinson from We Love Mobile identifies a long time consumer trend, i.e. the desire for a simple phone...

Debi Jones from Mobile Jones presents a few ways to improve the audio of the N95 using an external microphone

Timothy Yordy from I’m Not A Rat shows how to create a mini SD Wi-fi Antenna out of a plastic easter egg for his Motorola Q9m.

And a little treat before we conclude this edition: Scott had a little bit of fun trying to guess when 100% phone penetration will be reached.

Well, that concludes this edition. Have a great week and hope to catch up next week with edition # 123 of the Carnival of the Mobilists at GoMo News. 

Super Tuesday - Super New Mobile Apps!

A big day like today brings cool new mobile apps!

First, let me share my own news:

As you know, I recently joined MyFrame Inc., who offers you a cool new mobile application called Flixwagon. For those of you who don't know what Flixwagon is, Flixwagon enables anyone with a capable 3G/WiFi mobile phone to broadcast live videos to the internet.

So you're probably saying, "ok, new mobile gig, where's the news?". We partnered MTV. Today, MTV's street journalism team will broadcast from 23 states to ThinkMTV using Flixwagon. Throughout the day, MTV will regularly break into programming and showcase news features from the live reports.

James Whatley from SpinVox shared that that SpinVox has partnered with WNYC Radio to enable greater listener interactivity during the station’s ongoing coverage of the multi-state primary Super Tuesday. Voters will be encouraged to contribute thoughts, comments and observations by speaking messages to a special phone number set up for the radio station. Those messages will be converted into text by SpinVox and will dynamically become a part of the coverage in real time. Hockenberry and Udoji will report on voter sentiments and read select text on-air.

Interesting to see how new means of communication take part in one of the biggest political events. Will follow closely.

Mobile Sunday Barcelona

Rudy just published the list of people who are going to attend the Mobile Sunday Barcelona gathering "an unofficial, informal and generally cool and funky gathering of mobile bloggers and their chums - has already over 100 people subscribed to the wiki!"

I plan to attend, hope to see you there! :)

Chating with the Guru

Last week I had the pleasure of chatting with the Symbian Guru, who is also a dear friend of mine, a.k.a. Ricky Cadden.

The topics ranged from creating and sharing media to how exactly our mobiles fit into our lives, and how they might help us connect better locally. Our conversation is now available as a podcast so go over to Ricky's to listen to it.

Mobile World Congress

Hi friends,

I am attending the Mobile World Congress Barcelona (February 11-14 2008) with Flixwagon.
If any of you wants to meet, you are very welcome to drop me a line: xen [dot] mendelsohn [at] gmail [dot] com.

See you in Barcelona! :)
Xen

Links for the 14.1.08

• Blogs Influence Journalists - and Most Facets of News Coverage
• top-10-ways-to-use-facebook-to-promote-your-business-for-free
• The Facebook Marketing Bible: 24 Ways to Market Your Brand, Company, Product, or Service Inside Facebook
• 47 Social Websites: A List of General and Niche Social Media Communities
• 5 Who Won’t Appreciate Google Android

Carnival #106 is Here!

Welcome to the 106th edition of carnival of the mobilists!

Sit comfortably and get ready for a blast of the best mobile writing of the week :)

Let's start with my pick for the best post of the week:

Ajit Jaokar of Open Gardens asks us will P2P IMS applications take off or will there be only Web applications? Very interesting food for thought and some questions for you at the end of the post.

The M Generation

Starting up a new year, two bloggers focused on the M generation; Paul Ruppert from Mobile Point View analyzes today's teens who "socialize from the confines of their bedrooms". 

James Whatley from SMS Text News invites us to think about the children of tomorrow; they will probably ask: “Hey Ma, why didn’t you keep a blog?”

Howard Rheingold of SmartMobs reccomends on a forthcoming book by Rich Ling called "New Tech, New Ties", and is "the best book so far about the social effects of the mobile phone, in the context of sociology and social capital theory (and is very well written, as well)".

Mobile Web

Jim Durbin from Situational Marketing shares his thoughts about the mobile web and asks if it is a thing of the past.

Andrew Grill asks will the 3G mobile broadband “dongle” kill the WiFi hotspot market?

And on the same subject, Dean Bubley from Dean Bubley's Disruptive Wireless lists what needs to happen in order that 3G-embedded PCs might become popular.

Mobile Apps and Handsets

Dennis from the Wap Review took Yahoo! Go 3.0 and the revamped Yahoo mobile portal, both of which are completely widget based, for a test drive.

Raddedas from Techype has his own rants about Yahoo! Go 3.0.

Tarek Abu-Esber reviews the best phones of 2007… and his winner is….?

Vero Pepperrell from Taptology brings 8 recommendations of 8 great ways to show your mobile phone some love in 2008 .

Well, that concludes this edition. But, bofore you leave, an announcement from Rudy:

Rudy will announce during next week another MobileMonday Peer Awards that we'll be hosting during the Mobile World Congress at Espacio Movistar on February 11 and he's organizing a Mobile Jam Session together with Caroline Lewko (from Wireless Industry Partnership), a day barcamp/workshop for mobile developers on Tuesday 12, all websites to be launched during next week. Also you're invited to the MobileSunday Barcelona. Stay tuned @ mTrends.

Have a great week and hope to catch up next week at Mobhappy :)

Links for the 10-1-08

• What next for advertising and marketing?
• 366 Days of Word of Mouth Blogs: January's All-Stars
• Mobile Music Revenues to Approach $18 Billion by 2012
• Buzz Monitoring: 26 Free Tools You Must Have

Video Content Not Only For The Masses

Chris Albrecht from NewTeeVee reviewed a new start up called Big Think. According to Chris, 

"Big Think wants to become the YouTube for ideas. The site has experts like professor Steven Pinker, author Deepak Chopra, and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer answering big questions on topics like identity, politics and media. The video answers to these questions are supposed to kick-start discussions with people like you and me who can post responses or comments."

"In a world in which everyone’s a pundit, it’s nice to see someone recognizing the value of experts, but I just can’t see Big Think taking off. It’s just…so…heavy. Questions like “How are language and identity connected?” or “Has capitalism run mmok?” require too much brainpower when I’m multi-tasking with my computer, and the answers are snippets, so the topic can’t be more fully explored. While I haven’t watched all the videos, the only “fun” on Big Think I came across was “Writing for the Harvard Lampoon,” and “What is the most lavish party you have been to?” It’s like I’m reading cartoons from The New Yorker — clever, but fun in a way that’s elitist. Ultimately the whole thing feels like a big Ivy League club that I’m not welcome in."

Putting the writers' negative impressions aside, Big Think have a very smart segmentation, aiming to the higher-end of the population and not necessarily to the masses. When evaluating start ups or new websites, one must differentiate between the relevance for him\her and the relevance for the target segment. Although Big Think might make some people feel as if they are in a big Ivy League club to which they are not welcomed, many others might feel at home. This is exactly what segmentation is all about – specifically tailoring products and services for designated populations. Of course people who do not belong to the relevant segment might feel left out. Otherwise it wouldn't be segmentation at all. This is precisely the reason why adults might feel left out when their children play with Barbies, or action figures. Or why career driven businessmen might feel out of place in a cooking course. Good segmentation. That's why.

The segment of choice for Big think, the higher-end, is a segment that spends hours online and is always on the search for quality resources and quality content; i.e. the high-end segment is also part of the addressable market for video content. While this segment might have been consuming "light" content, it is well-equipped to enjoy more complex messages and will probably appreciate "heavy" content.

Some examples of successful segmentations have already made their way into marketing textbooks (such as manufacturing different car models to address different segments). Video content as a market has already reached the masses (YouTube, MetaCafe etc'), therefore segmentation is the natural next step. Lately we started to see some players addressing specific segments, like 5min and now BigThink. So, if you feel left out, don't worry – some player will target your segment soon enough.

This post was originally posted on The Flixwagon Blog.

Samsung Tries To Go Social Web 2.0

I was just reading at Go2Web2.0 about Samsung & YouTube's NewYears project. Users are invited to answer one of following questions in a short video (less than 1 minute long):

1. Make a video that reveals the one word that is your personal theme for 2008
2. Reenact the best of worst thing that happened to you in 2007
3. What cool things have you done with your mobile phone this year?
4. In 2008 what kind of cool mobile phone should Samsong develop for you?

Users can browse the videos using Google map and pick videos by location.

I can easily answer question #4 and say that Samsung should embed the Flixwagon live mobile broadcasting service in all of the devices :)

***

From a marketing point of view, while it is nice to see a huge mobile consumer brand interacting with users, IMO this campaign is not appealing enough; or in other words -- it lacks any real added value for the users.

1. YouTube users can upload their own created content to YouTube any day, therefore there is not much of an offer here. Plus, the current Samsung campaign limits users' videos up to a minute long while YouTube allows up to 10 minutes and 100 MB.

2. There is no clear incentive. Best clips will gain...? What? Self expression? A sense of belonging to a community? The perceived value should be the clearest message in any campaign.

3. And the worst: while a mobile consumer brand is involved in this campaign, there is no use of the mobile channel. How come there is no mobile offering in this campaign? Samsung could easily offer that the best 3 clips will be available on the mobile; or best suggestions (answers to questions 3 and 4) will be taken into development; or best clips will win Samsung handsets... ?

Until 2008

Thank you to everyone who has stopped by to read or comment.  2007 has been a fascinating year, thank you to everyone who's made it fun. 

Will be back here on 2008 :) Happy Holidays, and have a fantastic 2008.

Changes Coming Up

Hi all,

I know bloggins has been very slow lately, there is a good reason for it. Many changes are on their way so please be patient.

More news and updates about it in a couple of weeks.

Thanks a lot,

Xen