Verizon Wireless to charge companies for text messages

Verizon Wireless has announced that it will charge its partners 3 cents per text message sent to its subscribers, a move that has surprised a lot of people. For nearly five years, Verizon has not charged its partner companies that regularly send plenty of text messages, most of which are promotional in manner, to its millions of subscribers. Come November 1st, it will all change.

From now on, companies that have partnered with Verizon have to pay 3 cents for each text message they send through Verizon’s network. Companies offering text message alerts, interactive SMS polls, and SMS search will have to pay this amount from the first of November. However, Verizon has made it clear that this charge applies only to standard and premium programs and not to the free-to-end-user kind of programs.

While 3 cents per text message might not look that big an amount now, it could form a significant source of income for Verizon in the long run. This is the first time the company has reassessed its charges ever since it started partnering with other companies in 2003.

Now the important question is – will other carriers follow suit? After all, if a network carrier wants to charge for the text messages sent through its network, there is not much its partners can do. Especially, with SMS advertising becoming more popular than ever, they cannot afford to lose a highly targeted advertising medium. So, the companies will most probably try to come to terms with these changes in the industry. It will be interesting to see the reaction of other carriers in the coming days.

Categories: All things mobile phones.

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AT&T’s mobile TV - Deal or no deal?

Mobile TV has gained a lot of attraction in the recent times. Mobile advertisers are looking to go beyond the traditional means of advertising on mobile phones like text messaging (SMS), MMS, and banner ads and mobile TV could be the ideal choice for them. There are two reasons for this. First, people are used to ads on TV. So, watching ads during a TV show, even if it’s on their mobile phone, won’t sound too odd to them. Second, you can offer a huge variety of content via mobile TV which can attract plenty of people, making it more lucrative than SMS ads or banner ads.

However, not everyone is painting a rosy picture about mobile TV. For example, the latest offer from AT&T – AT&T Mobile TV – has raised a debate among experts.

AT&T has launched its mobile TV service in 58 markets and uses the same Qualcomm MediaFlo service used by its counterpart Verizon. If you remember, Verizon launched its V Cast Mobile TV a few weeks back. AT&T offers 10 channels at a rate of $15 per month. However, experts say this might not go down too well with everyone.

They seem to come up with two reasons. First, not everyone will be enthusiastic about paying $15 a month for mobile TV. Second, only two handsets can support this mobile TV service - LG Vu which costs $300 and Samsung Access which costs $200.

My take on this issue is simple. Both Verizon and AT&T offer mobile TV services from MediaFlo which are far superior in quality than watching a downloaded video clip on your mobile phone. Market research shows that there is a considerable audience, if not large, for mobile video and this could work in favor of mobile TV. However, the downside, as I already mentioned in my article earlier, is that only two or three handsets can support this service. You cannot expect everyone to buy a $300 mobile phone. So, if they could make it available on more handsets, handsets that are affordable, I think they could attract a good number of users.

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

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Mobile TV to rake in the moolah

A recent report from Juniper Research says that mobile TV will be the biggest revenue generator in the mobile advertising industry in 2010. I’ve already blogged about the importance of mobile TV and the kind of impact it can have. Now, this report from Juniper Research reaffirms it.

The total spending on mobile TV in 2008 is just around $335 million. However, it will reach a whopping $2.5 billion in 2013, says the report. The personal nature of the mobile phone, the availability of popular mobile video content, and the ability to target certain key demographics are considered the plus points of mobile TV.

However, the most important point that caught my attention was this statement from the report.

‘People are accustomed to advertisements in video and are thus less irritated by it than other forms of advertising, especially compared to SMS.’

For your information, this has been my stand on mobile TV for quite some time now and I’ve already blogged about the advantage of mobile TV over other forms of mobile advertising.

On one hand, we have people who are getting ready to watch Olympics in mobile TV and on the other hand, we have advertisers who are gearing up to adapt themselves to the phenomenon that is mobile TV. However, they need to remember one thing. Mobile TV is not just about replicating the TV service with simulcast. The content, the package, and the ad format should be interactive enough to keep the viewer engaged or else the whole idea might backfire big time.

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

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A look at Limbo’s mobile advertising report

Limbo, probably the most famous mobile entertainment community in the world, released its mobile advertising report recently. It had some encouraging figures and some surprising facts.

1. The major focus of the report was on brand recall. Limbo says more than 40% of mobile users who received mobile ads were able to recall at least one brand, which is a significant fact.

2. SMS or text message is still the number one choice for mobile advertisers. While it is known that SMS is very popular with youth, this report says that there is a significant number of people aged 35 or over use SMS regularly, thereby debunking the myth that SMS is an exclusive medium for youth.

3. WAP is the fastest growing medium with close to 70 million users. This will help mobile advertisers reach end users more effectively.

4. Surprisingly, people in the low income group were able to recall brands more effectively than people in the high income group.

5. As usual, Verizon and AT&T were the most recalled names.

When it was predicted that mobile advertising industry will be worth billions in a few years, a lot of eyebrows were raised in doubt. But with more users, more advertisers, and more operators joining the mobile advertising bandwagon, I’m sure the industry will grow at the predicted rate.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Blyk to offer free mobile browsing?

Blyk is one of the few well known names in the world of mobile advertising. Especially, the way it has targeted the 16-24 age group for mobile ads is considered very good by a lot of people. In a recent insight discussion group with members, Blyk discussed a lot of issues. The most talked about issue, as you would have guessed from the title of this post, was free mobile browsing.

Blyk does this insight discussion group thing often enough to understand the needs of their core market and to adapt themselves to the evolving mobile advertising market.

In this recent discussion, one of the major gripes was the youth’s need for a shortcut to information. As of now, text messaging (SMS) and MMS are the most sought-after ways to reach out to teenagers. Young people are swift in responding to such ads and the success rate has been pretty good so far. But the catch is mobile internet / mobile browsing. If they click on a link which takes them to a mobile site, they have problems viewing it because of two reasons.

1) Mobile browsing costs are way too high and young people, at least most of them, don’t have a regular income, which makes them reluctant to click on the links sent by advertisers.

2) A lot of them don’t have high-end mobile phones which offer rich browsing experience. So, browsing in general becomes a little tougher.

Now, the second reason can somehow be overlooked. The reason being – if I got a link in a mobile ad which could take me to a site where I can download latest ringtones for free, I wouldn’t complain a lot about my poor browsing experience, as long as it is good enough to get the job done.

But the first point is very important. So, in the discussion group, one point which was often raised was about offering free browsing to customers. This, no doubt, would encourage a lot of people to click on the links and check out what the advertisers have on offer, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. The data charges for browsing are quite high and Blyk should think of a strategy to cover its costs if it were to provide its customers with free browsing. What could be the solution? We don’t know as of now. But, as I always say, stay tuned.

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

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