MSNBC’s New Mobile Application for Apple iPhone Users

Here’s an important piece of information for Apple users.

MSNBC has come up with a mobile application for Apple iPhone and iTouch users. It has joined hands with a mobile media company called Zumobi to develop this application. Zumobi is famous for developing unique mobile applications for various smart phones like Apple iPhone, Google Android, and Palm Pre.

The application brings all the latest news from around the world to the mobile screen. The developers have integrated Twitter into this application which makes it even more useful for the end user.

With this application, you will be able to check out all the latest headlines any time you want right from your mobile phone. From world news to business, sports, weather, or entertainment, this app brings you pretty much anything you need right to your mobile screen. You will also be able to track Twitter feeds, or Tweets as they are called by many, from msnbc.com and share your favorite news items with your friends. The best part about this application, as far as I am concerned, is that it is totally free. You can download it directly from Zumobi’s website.

MSNBC has said that the interactive features in this application will offer a thoroughly engaging experience for mobile users. It has also said that this application offers a great chance for advertisers in the form of premium brand sponsorships.

In my opinion, this app could become pretty popular with iPhone users. If you remember, Associated Press launched its own mobile news network some time back. Considering how popular it became in a very short period of time, I think my prediction might come true very quickly.

Categories: Apple iPhone, All things mobile phones.

1 comment.

Mobile phones in India to come preloaded with ads?

With a mobile user base of around 250 million and growing, India continues to be the hottest market for mobile phone manufacturers. However, the rates of mobile phones have gone down sharply over the years. There are two main reasons for this.

First, the target customer segment of mobile phone manufacturers as far as India is concerned is the middle class people. According to surveys, the number of middle class people in India is estimated close to 300 million. In order to target this segment, mobile phone manufacturers have introduced new models which cost very little. And since the middle class also happens to be the most active customer segment in India, the low-priced models usually sell well, leaving the mobile manufacturers with no option but to continue with them.

Second, there is hellacious competition in the market. Both CDMA and GSM phone manufacturers are hell bent on capturing the biggest market share and as a result, they’ve cut down their prices sharply.

As a result, you can now get a mobile phone for just over $20 in India. Due to this reason, mobile phone manufacturers are looking for different ways to make money. One such way is mobile phone advertising.

Already, Nokia is planning to generate revenue through its mobile internet platform Ovi. Also, some of the mobile phone manufacturers in India are in talks with UK based mobile media firm Affle.

Especially, Affle’s SMS2.0, a mobile application, seems to have caught a lot of attention. This application adds a lot of new features like color, graphics, signature, and emoticons to an otherwise ordinary text messaging service. When the customer sends a text message using this application, there will be an ad at the bottom of the message and a full-screen ad while the message is being sent. Affle is also planning to add features like social networking and mobile search to this application.

Some of the big names in India including Airtel are interested in this technology and might soon incorporate it in their handsets. There are plans of releasing handsets which will have this application preinstalled. However, mobile manufactures might want to test the waters and see the user response for such handsets before taking any major decision.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

0 comments.

M:Metrics has some encouraging news for mobile marketers

A recent report from M:Metrics states that men in the age group of 18-34 are considered the best target for mobile advertisers in the U.S. and Europe. Men in this age group respond to text message advertisements and more importantly, access mobile web quite frequently. This has made mobile marketers take notice of this potential customer segment.

In Europe, mobile users in this segment are equally inclined to both text message adverts and mobile media. In fact, the numbers are quite encouraging for mobile marketers in Europe. In England, the number of mobile media users is 26.8% while in France and Germany it is 18.4% and 18.5% respectively. In fact, a significant amount of mobile users in England who belong to this age group prefer their mobile phone to TV, as they can get everything they want from mobile web.

The report also says that almost one third of mobile users in UK said that they prefer to respond to mobile ads and would like to buy products that are advertised. This statistics, more than anything else, should be very encouraging for mobile marketers in Europe.

Mobile users in the U.S., unlike their European counterparts, are not that much interested in text message adverts. They are more inclined to access mobile web for news and other information.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

0 comments.