The Future of 3G and 4G Services - A Detailed Look

Wanna hear something really incredible? According to TeleGeography, by the year 2013, the addressable market for 3G and 4G mobile services will be, hold your breath, somewhere around 4.5 billion people. In other words, nearly one third of all mobile users in the world will have access to these high speed mobile networks. That is right folks. An unbelievably big number – 4.5 billion wireless subscribers.

It is expected that more than 95% of wireless subscribers in Western Europe will have access to 3G and 4G services in 2013, which is nothing short of amazing. Europe still continues to be the leader as far as mobile market is concerned. Nearly 90% of mobile users in the U.S. and Canada, more than 80% of users in Latin America and Eastern Europe, 70% of users in the Middle East and Africa, and 60% of users in the Asia Pacific region will have access to these next generation cellular services. While it could be said that this is a highly optimistic prediction, the possibility of such an occurrence definitely cannot be ruled out considering the rate at which mobile web and other mobile related services are growing.

I have often argued that India and China are the countries to look for when it comes to mobile services because of their huge population and rapidly developing economies. Now, looking at the numbers above, some of you might wonder why only 60% of users in Asia are expected to have access to 3G and 4G services. The reason is not hard to fathom. The population of China and India is so big that it is nearly impossible for mobile service providers to expand their networks to that extent in such a small period of time. So, even if only 60% of wireless users access 3G and 4G services, it is still a huge achievement.

The most important thing about this news is that it hints at the possibility of a global network of mobile phone users connected by the invisible web of 3G and 4G networks. This, in my opinion, could result in the explosive growth of mobile social networking. The ability to access social networking sites right from their mobile phone at the click of a button is something that every other mobile user, particularly teens and young adults, wants. While this news is certainly exciting, it is not that big of a surprise to me. After all, it is something that we all knew was going to happen sooner than later, isn’t it?

Categories: All things mobile phones, Mobile Social Networking, Mobile Web.

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Using QR codes in mobile advertising a good idea?

One of the stories that I read recently in a website caught my attention. It’s about using QR codes (Quick Response codes) in mobile advertising. Even I’ve been thinking about it for quite some time and the person who wrote that story almost stole the words from my mouth.

For those of you who don’t know – unlike other ordinary codes, the contents of a QR code can be scanned and decoded at a very high speed.

QR codes are very popular in countries like Japan and Korea but not so in the U.S. or even in Europe for that matter. In Japan and Korea, these QR codes in advertisements can be scanned and decoded by mobile phones. So, when you see an ad, you can simply scan the code with your mobile phone and it will take you to a hyperlink or WAP sites where you can get a wealth of information about the product/service mentioned in the ad.

More than 40% of mobile users in Japan use their mobile phones to scan QR codes in adverts regularly. In fact, a lot of mobile phones in Japan come preloaded with the application required to scan such codes. If not, the app can be downloaded from the internet without much trouble.

This has helped mobile advertisers a lot in Japan and Korea. Mobile users find it easier to scan codes to get information rather than having to send a text message or make a call. So, this minimizes effort on mobile users’ part and makes the job of the mobile advertiser easier than ever.

It would be great if U.S. and Europe can catch up with this technology, as it can be a tremendous opportunity for advertisers to reach out to end users without much trouble. I think this idea will get a great response from mobile users as well, as all they need to do is, take a snap of the ad with their mobile phone and get all the information they want. What do you think?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Mobile social networking could be the future

Everyone talks about mobile advertising these days and most importantly, everyone, irrespective of their knowledge in this issue, seems to have an opinion on the same. Marketing experts world over say that mobile advertising could be huge and one of the most important reasons is the rising awareness on social networking sites.

Social networking has become hugely popular all over the world. Apart from big markets like the U.S. and Europe, the numbers from countries like India and Brazil are staggering and it only shows people’s growing interest in this phenomenon called social networking. This is why mobile advertising could be huge. Social networking, by definition, is about people that want to keep in touch with their friends and share info among them by the hour. Now, you can’t expect someone to roam around with a laptop all the time and this is where mobile phone comes into the picture. If social networking sites can be made easily accessible on mobile phones, the response would be tremendous. The mobile phone is always with you and it will help you keep in touch with your friends by the minute through these sites. Already, lots of mobile applications support this facility and you also have mobile social networking sites from Facebook and the like.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt says that mobile advertising could be twice as profitable as conventional advertising, as the ads are targeted and more personal. However, it all depends on how easy the user finds it to surf the web on his mobile phone. The most important thing is the quality and speed of mobile internet. The speed needs to be improved and the screens need to be widened in order to give the users a rich experience. As of now, surfing Facebook in an ordinary phone is way difficult than doing it in an iPhone. So, the focus should be on making mobile internet access simpler for the users. The more we see phones like the iPhone, the easier it will be for the advertisers to reach out to the end users. One thing’s for sure – the future is gonna be exciting.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Mobile Social Networking.

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