Vodafone to launch nationwide marketing campaign to promote mobile browsing

If there is one company which is very excited about the future of mobile web, it’s Vodafone. It first started off by slashing its mobile internet tariff by almost 50%, as a result of which you can now get mobile broadband at £15 a month, and now it has announced that it will launch a marketing campaign to encourage people to use mobile internet more often.

This campaign will serve as an eye opener for common public and Vodafone intends to make people realize how easy it is to access the internet from their mobile phones. Vodafone plans to launch a massive, nationwide marketing campaign all through the summer and plans to target train stations, shopping malls, bus stations, live events, and more.

It has started off well by buying media space in train stations all over the country. So, you can expect to see Vodafone ads with the slogan “Travel the mobile internet” in billboards, ticket barriers, and rotating poster boards soon in a train station near you.

It has been announced that the campaign will start off at London’s Kings Cross station and will be run all over the country for more than 250 days.

More than the campaign, I think the price cut will do loads of good to Vodafone’s mobile internet division. Don’t you think so?

Categories: Mobile Web.

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Mobile broadband to become bigger than fixed line internet

We’ve already seen some signs that indicate just how big mobile web will become in future and here’s one more to that list. In fact, this one hits the nail on the head. Broadband experts predict that in just about two years, mobile broadband will overtake fixed line internet.

This comes off as hugely surprising news for many, even for people, yours truly included, who feel positive about mobile web. The reason is simple. They say it’s going to happen in just two freaking years.

They state a few reasons to back up this ambitious claim. First of all, the ability to connect your laptop to the internet through your mobile device is the biggest plus. This is becoming more and more common with people who wish to stay connected all the time. Finding a browsing center in an unknown area is a pain in the neck and finding a Wi-Fi hotspot zone to use your laptop doesn’t sound too exciting either. So, mobile broadband sounds like the perfect option.

Also, the price of mobile broadband has come down recently. 3, the famous UK operator, offers mobile broadband for just £15 per month. There has been a steady decline in the price of mobile broadband for quite some time and especially over the past few months, the prices have come down almost by 50%. So, this encourages a lot of mobile users to think of using the mobile web facility.

Most importantly, HSDPA, 3G, and 3.5G networks offer high speed browsing for users. According to a survey, the average speed offered by mobile broadband providers is around 1.5 Mbps, which is not at all bad.

The number of mobile broadband users has been steadily increasing and experts promise that if it continued to grow at this rate for the next year or two, we would be looking at a scenario where fixed line broadband connections would become a rarity.

That, I think, is one heck of a claim. What do you say folks?

Categories: All things mobile phones, Mobile Web.

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Yet another interesting report on mobile advertising - II

I recently read a brilliant report on mobile advertising by Arthur D Little, a leading management firm. It says that mobile broadband will gain significant popularity in the next five years and with Europe being the leader in mobile based services now, mobile broadband penetration in Europe will be the highest in the world, up to 50%.

The report also talks about the role of mobile operators in mobile advertising. I was surprised to read that advertising generates only 5% of mobile operators’ revenue whereas in other media, advertising plays a bigger role and constitutes around 16% of the total revenue. This clearly indicates that mobile operators are yet to understand the impact of advertising as a revenue generating model. However, with mobile market growing fast, they need to think of ways to tap the revenue that can be generated from advertising.

Internet kingpins like Google and Yahoo have realized the importance of mobile advertising and are working on making it a successful source of revenue. At this stage, mobile operators need to do something on their own to generate revenue through advertising or they need to at least form partnerships with big players like Google and Yahoo and share the revenue. Either way, there is money to be made in mobile advertising and whether you are an operator or an advertiser, you need to come up with an idea to get your share.

The report also talks about Blyk and takes it as a case study to describe how successful mobile advertising could be, if it’s done the right way.

I’ve always believed that mobile broadband has a great future and moreover, we are now at a stage where we are fed up with 3G networks and talking about WiMax as an alternative. So, the stage is set for mobile broadband to become the next big thing.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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