What will this year portend for mobile messaging?

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Pioneering technologist Alan Kay once said that “the best way to predict the future is to invent it.” Reflecting on another year gone by, this comment rings especially true.

For mobile, 2009 marked a year of outstanding innovation and growth; communication in 140 characters became all the rage as Twitter reached mainstream consciousness; Apple delivered its one billionth application download from the App Store; Orange and T-Mobile announced plans to merge their British business to become the Britain’s largest network provider, and O2 overtook BT in British revenues.

After so much development in 2009, where will 2010 take us?

Revenues rising, profit margins tightening
The challenge for carriers in the coming months will be to begin to prepare customers to pay premiums for high usage or optimal quality of service.

SMS revenues
According to analysts, SMS revenues will continue to grow rapidly, breaking the $100 billion-mark next year.

Location-based services
The industry is realizing that location alone is not a revenue-generating service in its own right – but is recognizing that it can provide valuable enhancements to existing services that will greatly stimulate services such as mobile search, mobile advertising and social networking, making these services more relevant, actionable and personal.

Mobile payments
In developed markets, the challenge had been about building consumer trust. Now, issues such as security, regulation and quality of service are dominating peoples’ minds.

Mobile social networking will come of age
Until now, the flood of unbillable Mobile Terminated messages from social networks were an issue for using SMS and MMS to address the mass market. But now enhancements such as MT charging, anti spam, location, ad insertion and hash-tagging will enable the carrier to engage in new business models for two-way social networking traffic.

Android – iPhone
We will see more Android-based phones entering the market this year, so it will be interesting to see if the semi-monopolistic iPhone hype will be reduced to normal proportions as the open model for Android provides a good alternative to the relatively closed iPhone.

Carrier app stores versus handset app
Carrier app stores have the ability to reach the mass market and can be enhanced with a range of capabilities including messaging, security, location, charging and user profiling. The stakes will only get higher this year as the battle rages on.

Proliferation of mobile security
The increased opening of networks and handsets release myriad new threats, will lead to increased customer care, higher infrastructure costs and more churn and brand damage. It will also hinder the uptake of services such as mobile financial services and mobile advertising.

Wait and see, but be prepared
As we did with SMS and MMS, we need to focus on how we can use IMS and RCS to add value to enhance third-party applications and services.

Network sharing
The sharing of radio networks is the most obvious cost-saving opportunity. But for service delivery infrastructures it is also important to be as flexible as possible.

Read the original article here.

Social Media Revolution

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Is Social Media a Fad? Or is it the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?

Welcome to the Revolution!

The video is about changes in the society and  Social Media facts and figures.

Ten Ways Social Media Changed Our Thinking in 2009

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This list was published by David Berkowitz, Senior Director of Emerging Media & Innovation at digital marketing agency 360i. Find out more about him here

In many ways social media managed to change our thinking about what happened, what’s going on, and how the world’s changing.  This list focuses on 10 ways in particular. Not all are exclusive to the past year, but many of the milestones from the past 12 months may well shape how we perceive the road ahead.

These four are probably the most interesting points in the list for marketers:

Sales: Dell has tracked over $6.5 million in revenue to Twitter. There are several  morals to the story: 1) It’s possible to track sales from Twitter. 2) It’s still in its infancy; Dell earned $61 billion last year, so its Twitter sales will barely cover the Post-it notes used at the 75,000+ employee company. 3) Those are only the direct sales, and every time the press reports on Dell’s model, some consumers will go to Dell’s outlet site without bothering to check what’s happening on Twitter. Bottom line, though, social media is making an impact on sales, and this year we finally started to measure that effect in earnest.

Searching: Google, Yahoo, and Bing committed to giving real-time search valuable real estate in their results pages. Sometimes it will be higher up and sometimes further down, and it will surely be much bigger than Twitter, but now it’s here. Most people aren’t going to think to search Twitter or Facebook or Foursquare, but they will visit Google or Yahoo or Bing, and they’ll access the real-time links if they’re relevant. We’re still learning when it’s relevant, but there’s little doubt now that it matters.

Local marketing: So, how did you find out about that restaurant? Did you see a special for mayors on Foursquare? Did a friend check in via Gowalla and share it as their Facebook status? Were you walking down the street with your iPhone out while you augmented reality with Yelp’s Monocle or Urbanspoon’s Scope? Okay, augmented reality may be more gimmicky, but the social services are starting to help people find each other — and help people find local hot spots. The fusion of mobile, social and local started to create real opportunities to change consumer behavior. What was true for early adopters in 2009 will apply to the fast followers in the year ahead.

News-sourcing: Journalists were among the first to embrace Twitter. Will they similarly lead the charge with Google Wave? They’re starting to, anecdotally at least. Mashable loves covering these stories, from the Seattle Times posting a Wave to find a suspected cop killer to town squares hosted by the Austin American-Statesman. Google Wave itself may or may not be the platform of the future, but it’s opened the door to news ways for the media to interact with their audience.

Six more in the list:

Democracy: The Green Revolution, Iran’s populist attempt to reject the summer’s election results, was a global eye-opener for how a tool like Twitter — so easily dismissed as frivolous — could change the world…..

Death: We now mourn in public. Michael Jackson inspired millions — billions? — to grieve openly….

Celebrity Access: In January, Ashton Kutcher joined Twitter. He was followed by Ellen DeGeneres in March and Oprah in April….

Fan participation: This summer, two amazing events happened in the arts world simultaneously…..

Gift giving: Thought you were doing something special for a Facebook friend by giving them one of those little icons as a gift?….

Gaming: In November 2009, over 6 million gamers (and their loved ones) bought the blockbuster “Modern Warfare 2.” That same month, about 70 million gamers played “Farmville”….

For more details and the original article please click here!

TwittARound – Imagine Possibilities for Destination Marketers

This new application is soon to be launched on the iPod. Imagine a traveler following you on Twitter, having the opportunity to opt-in “to be seen” on Twitter when in your destination. This would allow a destination, restaurant, hotel, attraction or event make special offers such as a coupon or announcements…

The system will let you see individual nearby Tweets in real time, opening up all sorts of interesting social networking angles. Biz Stone, announcing the new service on Twitter’s blog noted that it will also be useful if you’re tracking an event like “a concert or even something more dramatic like an earthquake.” He’s right, Twitter-based news gathering is going to get more interesting with geolocated Tweets.

Read more on Fast Company.