Mobile Applications Revenue to Reach $32 Billion in 2015

Juniper Research’s latest report says that the revenue generated from mobile applications is set to increase sharply in the next few years. The report predicts that the revenue generated from in-app advertising, pay-per-download, and value added services will rise from $10 billion in 2009 to $32 billion in 2015.

The report sheds some light on Apple app store, the most popular name when it comes to mobile applications. As some of you might be aware of, Apple’s mobile app portal registered its 4 billionth download in April 2010, which is a remarkable feat. While ‘4 billion’ sounds like a huge number, the fact that most of these downloads were free makes us look at the statistics in a completely different manner. In fact, the number of paid-for applications is somewhere in the range of 5% to 15% of the total number of apps downloaded. So, the report says that the number of downloads and the amount of revenue generated are not directly proportional and hence an increase in the number of downloads does not necessarily mean an increase in industry revenues.

One of the main points that the report raises is the importance of developing mobile applications that can be accessed using a wide range of handsets. While platform-specific applications can be downloaded and used only by a particular set of mobile users, these generic applications can be downloaded and used by anyone who has a mobile phone. This move can be particularly effective in developing markets where the use of high end mobile phones and smartphones is very rare as most of the people still use low end phones.

The report also discusses in detail a number of topics including the need for scale, the need to monetize the mass market, app store overload, and content legacy. You can find more details here.

Categories: All things mobile phones, Mobile Applications.

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Google - story so far and the road ahead

Google is one of those things that most of us just can’t live without. At least, I know I can’t. It has become so indispensable in our lives that we find ourselves searching for something in Google every day. With everyone and their mother using Google as their default search engine, the popularity it enjoys is immense. It’s also the reason why Microsoft and Yahoo pale in comparison. So, when Google announced that it will focus on mobile phone market, a lot of people were surprised. I, for one, was surely surprised. I mean, why would a company which enjoys almost a monopoly in online search think of going into mobile phones? But apparently, Google knew what it was doing.

For long, Google has been enjoying the number one spot in online search. Yahoo and Microsoft were the contenders but ‘so close, yet so far’ was their case. But Google was wary of its competitors, especially Microsoft. Given Microsoft’s reputation to buy companies, a deal with Yahoo was almost on the cards. Steve Ballmer apparently told Yahoo board that together, they can be a great threat to the dominancy of Google and topple it easily. But the deal has not happened and Google, as of now, is still the number one. But for how long was the question. In order to sustain its position in the market, Google had to prove that it was not a ‘one product’ company. The solution came in the form of mobile web.

Why mobile web? It’s simple arithmetic. There are more than 3 billion mobile phones in the world. In just about a couple of years from now, there will be 4 billion mobile users in the world. In other words, there will be three mobile phones for every PC in this world. And to add to this, mobile camera, MMS, mobile internet, mobile video, mobile audio, and GPS – features which were considered luxury once – have become so common these days that we see these features in almost every other phone. What this means to advertisers around the world is that they have a new channel for advertising – the mobile phone.

Mobile advertising, as they say, is the next big thing and there’s billions to be made in the industry which is still in its nascent stage. We hardly go out without our mobile phones. We attend every call and read every text message we get. So, an advertisement in a mobile phone is sure to get noticed. Especially, if you can send targeted ads to people, it will have a bigger impact than traditional advertising. Add this to the fact that Google specializes in targeted advertising. The answer is simple – Google planned to enter the mobile advertising territory big time.

Out came Google Android. A platform which can probably make Google as big a name in the mobile web as it is in online search. But Google knows that this will not be a smooth ride. It will have to struggle considerably to cope with Yahoo, iPhones, Windows Live Mobiles, Blackberries, and more. But competition is something that brings the best out of everyone. Let’s just hope that this competition brings the best out of every big player out there in the market and ultimately benefits us – the end users.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Google, All things mobile phones.

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Motorola - the road ahead

The story of Motorola is something that has always amazed me. I mean, a profit of over $340 million in one year and a loss of over $380 million the next year is something I cannot understand.

The mobile phone giant has posted monumental losses for four quarters in a row now, which has made its investors think twice about its future. A lot of investors are pushing Motorola to sell its mobile phone manufacturing unit, as they consider it a liability. The mobile phone biz alone, if sold, could fetch a sum of around $20 billion, according to sources.

Some big names, especially some companies from Asia, are interested in buying Motorola’s mobile phone unit. However, it’s not just about mobile phone companies. People who watch the market closely say that even a company like Google might consider Motorola a good option. Google, instead of asking other companies to incorporate its platform, can come up with its own range of Android based mobile phones if it decides to buy Motorola. However, I have to say it’s a far fetched idea, as Google may not have any such idea, at least in the near future. Google doesn’t like to identify itself as a mobile phone company, as its core revenue is based on advertising - which is the primary reason why it came up with Android, a mobile phone platform, instead of Google phone, unlike what most of us had predicted.

One thing’s for sure. Motorola is struggling. Whether it will reinvent itself with a stunning model like RAZR to reestablish its position in the market or sell its mobile phone biz to someone is something we’ll have to wait and watch.

Categories: All things mobile phones.

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University grads come up with a text message based mobile advertising idea

Two graduates from Carnegie Mellon University are working to make text messaging (SMS) facility in your mobile phone more useful than ever. They believe that text message is the ideal and the easiest way for marketers to reach their customers effectively.

The idea is simple. The advertiser will have text codes in his ads and when a customer wants to know more details about the product/service advertised, all he needs to do is take his mobile phone and send a text message and get the information he wants right in his mobile phone. This technology will be launched this summer by the famous Smash Technologies.

This will be a great opportunity for retailers and small business owners to advertise their products/service more effectively. Also, it’s the customer who makes the first move in this campaign by responding to the ad with a text message. So, he can always choose to only respond to those ads which he finds useful. As a result, what you have is – no privacy concerns for the consumer and an effective advertising method for the advertiser.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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CBS joins hands with Loopt to bring location based mobile advertising

A few weeks back, CBS announced that it will experiment with location based mobile advertising and based on the results, will think about taking the advertising campaign to the next level.

It was announced that CBS Mobile unit will team up with Loopt, a famous social networking service, in this advertising campaign. The team has got two tailor-made mobile websites to run this advertising campaign – CBS Mobile News and CBS Mobile Sports.

As of now, these ads will appear on your mobile screen only if your phone has GPS capabilities and if you are a customer of Sprint Nextel or Boost Mobile, who have signed deals with Loopt. However, CBS is confident of getting more carriers sign a deal with them to reach out to a larger customer base.

Loopt’s GPS based technology will help advertisers send targeted ads based on the mobile users’ location. Now, to stay clear of controversies and privacy issues regarding location based advertising, CBS and Loopt have announced that this advertising service will be made available strictly on an opt-in/opt-out basis. Meaning, if you are interested in getting the ads, you can opt in and you can opt out of the same at any time. Also, they have announced that the mobile ads will be delivered anonymously and they will not store your location history.

Something that Cyriac Roeding of CBS said made a lot of sense to me. When asked further about the importance of adding value in mobile advertising, he said that this is a game in which the customer should win at the end of the day, for if he doesn’t, there is no game to be played. Spot on, I should say!

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Mobile Social Networking.

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