Friday, November 13, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Hong Kong Market Stats May 2009
Mobile subscribers (May 09) 11,757,749
2.5G and 3G mobile subscribers (May 09) 4,160,627
Household fixed line penetration rate (May 09) 99.70%
Household broadband penetration rate (May 09) 78.70%
Public Wi-Fi access points (July 09) 8,612
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Designing for Social Traction
2. Making their first-time use a positive and engaging experience.
3. Keeping them engaged on an ongoing basis.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Developing for mobile web in Japan
http://andreas.web-graphics.com/mobile/
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/09/japan%E2%80%99s-super-advanced-mobile-web-too-unique-to-serve-as-a-global-blueprint/
SUMMARY
Technologies as (X)HTML, CSS, ECMAscript and the DOM—“web standards”, in short—are the buzzwords among web developers nowadays. Created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and originally only deployed on a handful of sites, web standards are fast becoming the preferred way for putting content online. The benefits are said to be numerous: pages are lighter and load faster, coding and maintaining a site is less time consuming, search engines can index pages more accurately and disabled users have the advantage of improved accessibility. Additionally, there is the promise of forward compatibility—designs that adhere to web standards are supposed to render on any exotic or even future browsing device, PDA and cellphone browsers being a good example.
One should expect that Japan, with its high penetration rate of advanced mobile handsets, has found the way to standards compliant web design long before anyone else. The reality is different though. Most Japanese websites consist of non-standard markup and are designed with a handful of desktop based browsers in mind—to cellphone users, three flavors of so called “mobile versions” are served, each targeting a different group of mobile browsers. Needless to say, this is a completely different picture than the one-serves-all logic behind web standards.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Mobext Releases Global Mobile Insight
VIEW REPORT
SMS/MMS, Location-Based Marketing, Mobile Web and Branded Content Key Pillars for Mobile Marketing Growth ~
July 29, 2009 – In a report released today by leading mobile marketing specialist Mobext (www.mobext.com), part of Havas Digital, new analysis finds that the US mobile services market has accelerated quickly and has now nearly caught up with traditional leaders Asia and Europe in terms of consumers’ mobile habits and available technologies, laying the groundwork for a surge in mobile marketing opportunities.
Given consumers’ rapid adoption of the mobile platform and the ensuing growth of the mobile marketing industry at-large, Mobext’s Global Mobile Insight identifies four key pillars - SMS/MMS messaging, location-based marketing, the Mobile Web and branded content – that will be increasingly important channels for marketers to consider as part of their overall marketing mix.
“As advanced mobile devices – particularly the iPhone – continue to gain market share and traction with mainstream consumers, a brand’s mobile presence and marketing efforts will be a critical part of its overall marketing strategy,” said Phuc Truong, US Managing Director of Mobext.
Other key findings include:
Japan’s booming mobile commerce landscape demonstrates the potential future of the retail market for the rest of the world. Shopping online via mobile devices is already a mainstream activity in Japan; eMarketer states that Japan’s m-commerce is expected to grow 45 percent to USD$ 26 billion in 2011, compared to 2007.
A brand’s digital communications should be tailored to mobile’s ‘on-the-go’ mentality; mobile’s smaller screen space, utility and simplistic scrolling vs. a traditional mouse should be considered.
Mobile video/TV applications will take some time to reach critical mass, but will gain popularity in years to come. However, given bandwidth costs and a limited viewing au¬dience, ad-supported models are unlikely to be sustainable in the near term.
Asia's mobile phone habits revealed
by Jane Leung 7-Sep-09, 17:07
HONG KONG - Singaporeans and Taiwanese are Asia's most dedicated mobile users, according to a new study by Synovate.Synovate's global mobile phones survey found that 75 per cent of the 8,000 respondents asked across 11 markets never leave home without their phones. Singaporeans came in second place behind Russia with 89 per cent of the vote.
Almost 60 per cent of Taiwanese responded more dramatically with the statement “I cannot live without their mobiles”, followed again by Singapore with 49 per cent. Managing director of Synovate Taiwan Jenny Chang explains that mobiles “partly act as a remote control, and partly as a security blanket”.
Research has shown that Filipinos are more tech-savvy than other Asia countries in terms of using mobile applications, other than the regular SMS or calling functions. Nearly 13 per cent watch television on their mobiles and 63 per cent play games regularly.
"Many Filipinos use mobiles instead of the internet and computers and it's not surprising that it has become such a multi-purpose, multitasking tool," said Carole Sarthou, managing director for Synovate in the Philippines. “In many cases, a mobile is all people have.”
According to Synovate's research, on a cultural level, mobiles are a favoured medium for conveying negative messages. Leading with 49 per cent was again the Philippines, Malaysia was second with 48 per cent, followed by Singapore with 47 per cent). One in five Malaysians has either been dumped or dumped someone via text message. Malaysia’s managing director Steve Murphy stated: "Confrontation is certainly something that most Malaysians try to avoid. Let’s face it - it is just plain easier to break up with someone via text message than having to tell them face-to-face."
Some 37 per cent of respondents surveyed were unsure about most of the features in their phones; 22 per cent of respondents said they do not know what features they would like to see in mobiles in the future. However, Synovate's global head of media Steve Garton sees this as an opportunity for the industry: “As the mobile becomes more of an all-in-one device, many other businesses are facing challenging times. However, the opportunities for mobile manufacturers and networks are enormous.”
Monday, July 20, 2009
Social Media Report - Universal Mccann
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Who says brands aren’t running mobile marketing campaigns?
Go here for links to example case studies
Lots of examples of US campaigns
That lament – that brands aren’t serious about mobile marketing or even ready for the channel – should be put to rest once and for all.
Yes, it seems that even after hitting key milestones – 270 million U.S. mobile phone subscribers, nearly 40 million smartphones nationwide, 40,000 iPhone applications downloaded more than 1 billion times, 99 percent ubiquity with SMS service on all phones – some marketing and agency executives still need evidence that mobile marketing is in rude use.
Well, here’s a compilation of the top headlines from Jan. 1 onward that ran in this publication focusing on brands engaged in mobile marketing and commerce. Feel free to forward to as many clients and prospects as possible for them to click through. Maybe they will want to become a headline, too.
By Mickey Alam Khan Mobile Marketer
Online consumption habits grow in Aisa
- Microsoft and Synovate release findings
- 11 markets surveyed in Asia
- Online the top media consumed
Asia - The internet is the most popular media for business leaders and young people in Asia to consume, according to a new study from Synovate and Microsoft Advertising.
The PAX Affluent Survey for Q1-4 2008 offers insights into the media consumption habits of the affluent population in 11 markets across Asia. The survey confirmed that the internet has become a major medium for marketers to engage with the region's affluent and business executives. The region's affluent segment and business executives spend more than 37% of their media time on the internet, as compared to TV, newspapers and magazines.
The survey also found that business leaders and top management engage the most time on the internet, while the young upmarket audience spends more than 900 minutes per week on the internet.
The Synovate PAX Affluent Survey tracks media, prosperity and influence in 11 markets across Asia, measuring the top 22% of population in the surveyed markets. A total of 1,700 samples per market were interviewed per annum via telephone.
The 11 markets surveyed include Australia (Melbourne/Sydney), Bangkok, Hong Kong, India (Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi), Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Mobile Web Experience Benchmark Data for the Airline, Banking and Search Industries
Gomez and dotMobi Publish Latest Mobile Web Experience Benchmark Data for the Airline, Banking and Search Industries
VIEW ARTICLE12 May 2009
New Benchmarks Find that Gap between Mobile and Fixed Web Performance is Widening
Lexington, Massachusetts, May 12, 2009 — Today, Gomez, Inc., the leader* in web application experience management and web performance benchmarking, and dotMobi, the company behind the .mobi Internet domain for identifying content that works on mobile phones, published the April results of their Mobile Web Experience Benchmarks. The first-of-their kind Gomez / dotMobi benchmarks compare and rank the mobile Web experiences provided by the top businesses in airline, banking and search by measuring five critical dimensions of success for mobile Web sites — readiness, discoverability, speed, success and consistency.
The new benchmark data reveals that mobile Web sites were almost nine percent slower in April than in March. Conversely, fixed Web sites loaded three percent faster in April than in March, according to data from Gomez’s 18 Home Page Web Performance Benchmarks, revealing a widening performance gap between the mobile and fixed Web.
April data for the Mobile Web Experience Benchmarks is now available at:
Airlines
Banking
Search
Benchmarks Testing Five Critical Mobile Web Experience Metrics
The Gomez / dotMobi benchmarks combine Gomez’s industry-leading web experience measurement methodology for the traditional PC-based Web with tools from dotMobi to test mobile Web performance across major wireless networks. The benchmarks test these five core metrics:
Discoverability — how readily a consumer can find the mobile Web site using different URLs.
Readiness — how well the mobile Web site renders on popular mobile devices.
Availability — the percentage of successful transactions or the availability of a Web page.
Response time — how long each page takes to download and the duration of an entire transaction.
Consistency — how well the mobile Web site performs on different mobile carriers, in different geographies and time frames.
“As mobile Web usage becomes more commonplace, consumers naturally have high expectations for the mobile Web experience that brands provide. However April’s data proves that delivering quality experiences on the mobile Web continues to be a challenge for many businesses,” said Matt Poepsel, Gomez’s VP of Performance Strategies. “What’s more, bridging the performance gap between the mobile and fixed Web should also be a concern for brand managers and their technical teams. They need to be able to speedily pinpoint, diagnose and correct performance issues, whether they occur on the mobile Web, the fixed Web, or both.”
On April 21, Gomez announced new capabilities for testing, monitoring and benchmarking the performance of mobile Web sites, mobile applications and SMS services. See Gomez Expands Web Experience Management Suite to Encompass Mobile Web Sites & Applications
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media
Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media
Cellphone, Cameraphone, iPhone, Smartphone
by Tomi T Ahonen
The cellphone is emerging as a mass media
Twice as many cellphones as TV sets
Three times as many cellphone subscribers as internet users
Four times as many cellphones as PC sets
Five times as many cellphones as automobiles
31% of all music dollars spent worldwide already go to a wide array of cellphone based music services
20% of videogaming software revenues
Advertising, news, TV, internet giants, social networking and even Hollywood movies and printed books are now rushing to capture their share of the 7th of the Mass Media
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Z Group Mobile - Games List
Archives of potential can be found
April 2009
Contact
Ramez Bali
Content Manager
Tel: 963 11 5311274
WEB: www.zg-m.com
Digital Outlook Report 09 - razorfish
View PDF in browser
(180 pages)
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
4.1 Billion Mobile Subscribers Worldwide
Report: 4.1 Billion Mobile Subscribers Worldwide Helps Reduce Digital Divide (Slightly)
By James Quintana Pearce - Mon 02 Mar 2009 12:40 PM PST
There are now 4.1 billion mobile subscriptions in the world, a global penetration rate of 61.1 percent: This compares to 1.270 billion fixed line subscribers, corresponding to a penetration rate of 18.9 percent. The really impressive part is the growth rate of mobile subscribers over the last 10 years, which can be seen in the graph below. These figures were released by the International Telecommunication Union, which released its ICT Development Index (IDI) for 2008.
The index includes access and use of fixed and mobile telephony and households with computers and internet, and found that access is growing much faster than actual usage. The strong increase in the number of mobile subscribers in developing countries has helped narrow the gap between countries in the “high” ICT group and those in the other groups. Mobile isn’t the only thing increasing countries’ rankings though—strong movers such as Pakistan, Saudia Arabia, China and Viet Nam also have an an increase in internet users.
There has been a lot of talk about the benefits of mobile technology to developing countries, and the uptake has been rapid (Reuters notes that “while just 1 in 50 Africans had a mobile in the year 2000, now 28 percent have a cellular subscription”), but while voice calls and text are incredibly useful the real benefits will come from more sophisticated digital technologies…and they are on the way—thinks like mobile banking, mobile health assistance and so on are just beginning to take off, and the next ICT Development Index should show a strong increase in the level of access to digital information and services through the mobile networks in developing countries. However, it seems to combine different types of digital access, so I think it needs to be careful to take into account people that access the web and digital services only through mobile devices, but nevertheless have access to the services they need and want. ITU Release.
Press/Play: The Three Hottest Handsets at Mobile World Congress 2009
Go to Telecom TV
Recorded: 03/03/2009 - Barcelona, Spain
US Wireless Market Q4 2008 And 2008
- Mar 2009 by Chetan Sharma Consulting
Executive Summary
The US wireless data market continued to ignore the recession doldrums in Q4 2008 and grew 7.3% Q/Q and 38.7% from Q407 to reach $9.4B in mobile data services revenues. In 2008, the mobile data services revenues reached our original estimate of $34B. Even as the global industry crossed 4B in subscriptions and $1T in total revenues, the nervousness due to the current recession has been palpable. While the flailing economy has started to hit hard on the wireless data ecosystem esp. the infrastructure and handsets segments, consumers haven’t really pulled back on mobile data spending overall, just yet. There are sub-segments within mobile data revenue stream that are starting to feel the pinch like data card subscriptions and downloadables. Also, in an event of a longer recession, the fate of the US mobile industry will be more closely tied to the overall economy this time compared to the previous recessions.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Mobile TV’s Modest Numbers in Korea
Mobile TV’s Modest Numbers in Korea
By Rafat Ali - Sun 03 Aug 2008 03:22 PM PST
We have reported on this before, but some new numbers on mobile TV’s non-pickup in Korea…more specifically, the TV broadcasting using digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) format. The story says DMB—which includes the free terrestrial and premium satellite DMB—has an audience of some 13.7 million, according to latest data. That’s up from nine million in December last year. The number of DMB-enabled receivers sold here reached 13.69 million in June.
—Mobile phones accounted for 48.4 percent of all DMB subscribers.
—Car navigation systems and other DMB-enabled terminals used in vehicles accounted for 37.8 percent of DMB receivers, followed by portable media players at 9.4 percent and USB devices at 3.8 percent.—Laptop computers were the least popular DMB device, accounting for just 0.9 percent of all receivers.
Bu the overall viewership numbers remain minuscule: TNS Media, a local research firm, overall viewer rating for the day was just 1.172 percent, peaking at 3.585 percent during the commuting hours of 6 to 7 p.m. in the survey. And, even more surprising: male viewers in their 50s proved the largest audience for mobile TV rather than the convention wisdow that tech-savvy youngsters would be watching TV on the go. Viewership was also relatively high among men in their 40s and 30s, but minuscule among women and younger customers.
Report: Mobile Music To Hit $14.6 Billion In 2013
Report: Mobile Music To Hit $14.6 Billion In 2013
Juniper Research has predicted that the total mobile music services market will hit nearly $14.6 billion by 2013. Although there will be a sharp fall in ringtone revenues as users find alternatives this will be more than offset by growth in full-track downloads, streamed music services and ringback tones. Driving the growth are improvements in technology (higher memory, handset form factors, reduction of data costs) as well as an increase in the willingness of major labels to participate in mobile ventures. User-generated content will also help raise the total. This is a massive reduction from their predictions of a year ago, when Juniper thought total mobile music sales would hit $17.6 billion by 2012Report: Mobile Payments Of $860 Billion By 2013; Revenue Of $10 Billion
Report: Mobile Payments Of $860 Billion By 2013; Revenue Of $10 Billion
Mobile banking will take off over the next 5 years, led by behavioural challenges in the developing world as people who currently have no access to banking or electronic payment services take up mobile banking. Informa Telecoms & Media predicts that in 2013 almost 300 billion transactions worth more than $860 billion will be conducted using a mobile phone, which would represent a 12-fold increase in gross global transaction values in just five years. Assuming that the key players in the industry cooperate effectively the total revenue opportunity for mobile payments and banking will be over $10 billion by 2013, with the biggest revenue coming from mBanking services which are predicted to be worth $5.5 billion by that time. Near Field Communication (NFC)—which lets people swipe their phone over a sensor which reads a chip—is not expected to be a huge part of this, held back by a lack of availability of NFC-capable handsets and uncertainties regarding the business model. Informa does predict it will grow though, forecasting that in 2013 about 11 percent of all mobile handsets shipped will be NFC-enabled and that over 178 million mobile subscribers will be regularly using mobile NFC phones to buy physical goods and services, such as tickets, locally at the point of sale. Other predictions include:
—Remote Payments: Informa predicts that by 2013, over 445 million mobile subscribers will be regularly using their mobile phone to purchase physical goods and services remotely. In 2008 about a third of the total of $71 billion in mobile payments and transactions was for mobile digital content, but Informa reckons that by 2013 over 95 percent of mobile transactions will be for physical goods and services.
—Mobile Banking: By 2013 there will be 977 million users of mobile banking services worldwide, compared to around 67 million at the end of 2008 forecasts Informa.
—Mobile Money Transfer: Informa predicts that by 2013 almost 424 million consumers will be sending over $157 billion of personal funds via mobile domestically whilst a further 73 million will be sending $48 billion of funds via mobile internationally.
Friday, February 27, 2009
SMS & MMS Penetration in APAC 2008
AGE RANGE.......<25yrs......25+yrs
Australia.................92.0%..........76.7%
Hong Kong..............63.3%..........44.4%
Indonesia................38.6%..........30.0%
Malaysia ................70.8%..........47.0%
Philippines.............47.0%..........49.8%
New Zealand..........74.6%..........73.0%
Singapore...............92.8%..........65.6%
Taiwan....................83.1%..........42.7%
Thailand.................86.4%..........73.3%
MMS Penetration in Select Countries in Asia-Pacific, by Age, 2008 (% of population)
AGE RANGE......<25yrs......25+yrs
Australia.................24.1%..........13.0%
Hong Kong..............24.6%..........13.8%
Indonesia................3.5%............1.9%
Malaysia ................12.9%..........4.8%
Philippines.............16.0%..........19.6%
New Zealand..........3.1%............1.4%
Singapore...............36.2%..........17.2%
Taiwan....................7.2%............3.0%
Thailand.................35.1%..........20.9%
Source: Nielsen Media Index and Nielsen Panorama as cited in press
release, October 21, 2008
State of the Mobile Web, January 2009
Go to Opera's Report
In January 2009, Opera Mini had over 20.0 million users, a 12.1% increase from December 2008.
Opera Mini users viewed approximately 7.6 billion pages in January 2009. Since December, page views have gone up 18.3%.
In January 2009, Opera Mini users generated more than 122 million MB of data for operators worldwide.
