Review of recent developments
The growth of the mobile Internet now exceeds that the PC version. Mobile communications offer considerable potential to marketer because of their unrivalled combination of:
- instant response;
- personalized content (as each customer has a unique telephone number);
- scope for geographical location tracking.
The potential for mobile networks is particularly high in developing countries that do not have an established wired telephone network and hence no established PC-based Internet services. In the Philippines, for example, SMS messaging (see p. 194) has recently taken off rapidly, and mobile Internet services there- ore offer huge marketing opportunities in these emerging markets.
There has been a lot of hype recently about the potential of location-based technology in particular. However, current services are very basic, and it is important to remember that there is some way to go before they become sufficiently reliable and useful to have a broad appeal. For example, variations on the scenario whereby a customer is called on their phone and advised of a special breakfast offer just as they walk to work past a Starbucks outlet, have been heralded as the ultimate in personalized promotional campaigns. There are a number of practical difficulties, though, such as customers’ reluctance to be bombarded with intrusive advertising messages and the challenge of communicating effectively with the wide range of mobile devices and standards currently in use. The usefulness of wireless devices has recently been improved by new standards such as Jini and Bluetooth that connect wireless devices to other electronic products:
- Jini (www.jini.com) allows mobile phones, PCs and personal digital assistants (PDAs) to collaborate as part of an intelligent network, without the need for the correct device driver to be added to the operating system before a new device can be used.
Bluetooth (www.bluetooth.com) is particularly useful for linking mobile devices because it does not require any wire connections. For example, it could allow a user on a mobile in a car to transfer data from an office PC directly to a home printer.
Keynote systems (www.keynote.com) recently launched a mobile performance measurement service to compare the services offered by all the major UK networks. It can measure delivery times, network comparisons, handset performance and geographic availability, thereby allowing content providers, networksmanufacturers to judge how successful their services have been. It also allows consumers to benchmark performance and make informed purchase decisions. In addition, for a detailed comparison of the characteristics of different mobile technologies.
Mobile phones are now rapidly evolving and becoming ‘pocket portals’ that provide a range of personalized services including email and text messaging withjust one monthly bill. Before discussing some of the recent and pending innovations in this area, we shall review developments over the past two or three years
The first mobiles to offer Internet access, using Wireless Application Protoco (WAP), were introduced in 1999. The information displayed had to be espe cially formatted for a small screen area, and the limited functionality fell well short of the often extreme levels of industry hype. The telecommunications industry broke one of the central rules of marketing, which states that promotional campaigns should ‘under-promise’ and ‘over-deliver’ rather than the other way round. Users found that navigating between pages on a mobile phone could be an extremely laborious process, for which they were paying by the minute for connection charges. During 2000, many early users abandoned mobile commerce after disappointing experiences. While mobile commerce is useful for `distress’ purchases such as parking, actually browsing the Web on a mobile phone is hardly a straightforward and stress-free experience. However, there have been successes to date, notably with mobile banking and gambling services.
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