Rival Tablets Not Dead, No Matter What Apple Says

Apple says seven-inch tablets will be "dead on arrival," but developers and retailers are not convinced, and consumers will have to make the call about demand for tablets in various form factors, says the Wall Street Journal.

Verizon Wireless soon will be selling the Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy Tab—a seven-inch tablet that runs on Google's Android software. Next year, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. plans to release its seven-inch PlayBook.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs says 7-inch devices were too small to create great tablet applications. 'Their manufacturers will learn the painful lesson that their tablets are too small and increase the size next year, thereby abandoning both customers and developers who jumped on the seven-inch bandwagon with an orphan product,' Jobs says.

The argument for a smaller form factor is pretty simple. For many, perhaps most users, the smallest devices are the essential devices carried everywhere in a purse, pocket, backpack or briefcase. For most users, the phone is basic, but iPods might be a close second.

Traveling workers mostly consider their phones and notebook PCs to be essential, with all other devices secondary. Some people traveling for work say they carry both an iPad and a PC, but over time, I suspect that will shake out in favor of one or the other devices. For those users, a 10-inch device is better.

Some day, when prices drop, that might also be a viable option for college students when going to class. For some, though, who carry a phone all the time and a PC when traveling, and for whom content creation is a big reason why the PC is carried, the iPad will remain a third or fourth device choice (iPods might be most commonly carried, after the phone and PC).

Many users, especially those whose work allows them to travel with just a smartphone, leaving the PC at home or the office, will find an iPad a reasonable option. But that's why there would seem to be a market opportunity for tablets in a couple formats. When a tablet can be the second or third device (assuming the iPod is the second device), the bigger screen is helpful.

When the tablet has to be the third or fourth device, there are weight and bulk issues that could be important.

But the market will decide.

Connected Device Market Potential Dwarfs Phones

Aside from notebook PCs, many Americans now own portable or mobile devices that already are capable of mobile communications, or increasingly will be capable of mobile communications.

According to Nielsen, the typical owner of any one of these devices actually also owns three to five additional devices within these categories.

That means a large potential base of mobile and portable devices that will be candidates for Wi-Fi and mobile broadband services in the future, in numbers that dwarf the installed base of "phones."

What remains to be developed are pricing plans that account for ownership and use of multiple devices, most of which are designed for content consumption or entertainment more than communications. Broadband plans that allow a user to connect multiple devices at various times, at prices deemed reasonable, will be a huge opportunity, going forward.

So far, most consumers have shown only modest interest in $60 a month plans that connect PCs, though mobile service providers now are experimenting with demand for $15 to $45 a month plans for tablet devices and smartphones.

Those are steps in the right direction, but what ultimately will be needed are the equivalent of family plans for data devices, where the "family" might be a single user or household wanting to use multiple devices on a single access account.

Social Will Grow 10 to 25x In The Next Five Years

Kleiner Perkins venture capitalists think social applications could grow 10 times to 25 times over the next five years.

Bing Gordon: Social Will Grow 10 to 25x In The Next Five Years

Mobile Marketing" Upstream of a Coupon, Downstream of Yellow Pages

“Weather is not the only category that is seeing a significant amount of the audience preferring the mobile channel, but if you are selling an over-the-counter flu medication, and you traditionally buy weather sites online– mobile now must be a big part of your digital spend,” says Paul Palmieri, president/CEO of Millennial Media.

He said that American mobile consumers are seeking and finding an explosion of content experiences across a range of devices, are receptive to advertising messages and are in many cases in close proximity to making a purchase decision.

One way of thinking about the value of mobile messages is that they arrive when a user is "downstream of the yellow pages and upstream of a coupon,” Palmieri says. In other words, after a user has identified a need for something and just before moving to take action on that need.

MoMA | Marketing & Advertising agencies who are just “Testing”

Small business paid search spending up 43% in third quarter

U.S. small businesses spent about 43 percent more on paid search advertising in the third quarter of 2010 than they did in the same quarter of 2009.

The average spend on paid search advertising was $2,327 in the third quarter of 2010, according to WebVisible. Some might note that the rate of growth is slower than it had been in the second quarter, when spending grew 159 percent.

Perhaps that indicates firms are becoming better marketers as they gain experience. More ominously, it might mean the economic slowdown that happened in the third quarter already has affected small business ad spending again.

Paid search ad spending growth continues, but slows - Search Marketing - BizReport

Marketing On Social Networks? Add Mobile

One of the reasons marketing on social networks is so popular is that the consumers a brand can reach are largely active, vocal and willing to connect, with each other and with their favorite brands, says Forrester Research analyst Melissa Parrish.

But social networking and social media are fast becoming mobile venues as well. About 22 percent of U.S. online adults with mobile phones access their social networks via mobile at least monthly.

Already Marketing On Social Networks? Then You're Already Marketing On Mobile | Forrester Blogs

How Mature Is Your Mobile Strategy?

Only a third of 200 enterprise respondents surveyed by Forrester Research have had a mobile strategy in place for more than a year.

Online companies, media companies and financial institutions are often more advanced than firms in other industries.

Forty-five percent of respondents are just waking up to the mobile opportunity and thinking about integrating mobile into their overall corporate strategy, just like they did a decade ago with the emerging online channel.

For the majority of respondents, mobile is mainly seen as a way to increase customer engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty.

Many respondents who think it is too early to focus on mobile tend to claim that they first need to fix the basics regarding their overall digital and social initiatives. While that makes a lot of sense, mobile quickly is becoming a key enabler for social networking and social media behavior.

Facebook’s mobile global monthly audiences skyrocketed from 65 million users in September 2009 to 150 million users in July 2010.

Sixteen percent of Twitter users now start with mobile, versus five percent in April 2010. Over the same time frame, the number of mobile Twitter users has increased by 62 percent. It is becoming increasingly difficult, in other words, to conduct social media initiatives without considering the mobility angle.

How Mature Is Your Mobile Strategy? | Forrester Blogs