Local Mobile Marketing Spend to Grow 2.5X by 2015

Total U.S mobile promotional spend in 2010 shows a pronounced focus on national., rather than local, campaigns, according to Mobitrove. Almost $2.9 billion of $3 billion worth of "promotions" spending was for national promotions, or about 97 percent of mobile promotional dollars spent in 2010.

One suspects that is going to change over the next several years, as social shopping capabilities and focus starts to grow. The changes might be quite gradual for the first four to five years, as typically is the case when a new business segment gets traction.

After five years, growth is likely to be substantial, as retailers learn how to use local promotions with location services and social networking.

Mobile Marketing Spend to Sextuple 2010-2015:

Over the Air Updates: Ecosystem Implications

Just about everything in the mobile ecosystem seems to have business model implications. Consider the way mobile devices get updated.

Apple has used the iTunes to push updates to its iOS mobile devices. When a new software update is available, users have to tether to a PC to load the update onto their mobiles.

When an update to Google’s Android operating system or HP/Palm’s webOS is released, users are provided an update notification and can update the software right on their phone.

You might argue that the "tether to PC" model was forced by the relatively primitive nature of the iPod, which established the practice. On the other hand, lots of people have noticed the curiosity of the need to connect an iPad to a PC to configure the tablet.

Oddly, Apple has been saying the iPad "is not a PC." Requiring a PC to activate every tablet might illustrate that in a sort of negtive way: the tablet update strategy isn't smart enough to allow a natively mobile device to update over the air.

But Apple appears to be readying over-the-air iOS updates, starting in the fall of 2011, for updates to iOS 5 devices.

The business model implications of the over-the-air updating are that it appears Apple has to come to agreement Verizon Wireless and AT&T about how to support the wireless updates.

That points out the subtle, but real gatekeeper functions mobile service providers continue to possess in the mobile ecosystem.

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Visa Says Mobile Payments Unveiling is Coming Next Week | Tricia Duryee | eMoney | AllThingsD

Visa is planning to provide details next week about its mobile payments strategy. In recent months Visa has invested in Square, which provides an accessory allowing an iPhone to accept credit card payments.

Earlier in 2011 Visa acquired PlaySpan, which handles transactions for virtual goods in online games, digital media and social networks.

Visa also recently has launched a partnership with Gap, which is using Visa’s platform to alert customers by text message to discounts on jeans and other apparel when they are in the vicinity of a store. Visa is also opening up that platform to other retailers.

All of those elements suggest a strategy that includes the ability to send discount offers based on location, support smaller and independent retailers and also support online payments for virtual goods.

Those elements alone suggest support for small business retail payments, online digital goods as well as location-based advertising and promotion.

Visa Says Mobile Payments Unveiling is Coming Next Week

Dish Network to launch wireline broadband in Colorado

Dish Network Corp. is about a month away from starting to offer its own wireline broadband in service bundles sold in Colorado.

The Douglas County-based satellite broadcaster said Friday it will start making broadband services available in the state next month, five months after it bought Denver-based Liberty Bell telecom to start experimenting with a triple-play video, voice and Internet bundle.

Dish Network to launch wireline broadband soon | Denver Business Journal:

European Mobile Customers Are Willing to Pay for New Services

Among the fears communication service provider executives sometimes have is that customers will not pay for better service or new features. A new survey of 2,500 mobile subscribers by Amdocs, including mobile consumers in five European nations suggests subscribers are willing to pay for an improved customer experience and new services.

Fully 90 percent of Russian subscribers indicated they are willing to pay higher premiums to receive the products and services they want.

Only 30 percent of subscribers from all of the surveyed countries said they would be unwilling to pay for additional services.

Connectivity and the ability to make mobile payments were cited by European consumers as the top reasons they would increase their mobile usage. Subscribers also expressed a willingness to pay a
premium for the ability to consume all services from any device and for a single data bundle option.

Forty-three percent of respondents from all five European countries viewed connectivity as the most important industry development of the next decade.

Fifty-two percent of surveyed Russians and more than half of the Germans felt connectivity and synchronization between all devices would be the most important development of the next 10 years, and
almost 50 percent of German end users felt that the connected world would encourage them to increase their mobile usage.

In the U.K., more than 70 percent of respondents cited connection to other devices as the first or second most influential factor in increasing their mobile consumption.

European respondents chose improved network quality as the service they would be most likely to pay a premium for and 46 percent said this is the aspect they would most like to change or improve about their current mobile reality.

Users in the United Kingdom are most likely to pay a premium for increased network quality (39 percent) and 50 percent of surveyed consumers in the United Kingdom cited network improvements as their top concern, reflecting a growing reliance on access to mobile communication and information wherever they are.

The survey also included subscribers in France, Germany and Sweden.

As with all such surveys, there often is a difference between what consumers ay they will do, and the ways they actually behave.

Still, as with any product, the notion that customers will not buy new features, products or applications can be wrong. Whether they will, or will not, depends on the value of the innovations and the cost of using those new innovations.

Nobody seems to think "paying" is an issue with iPhones, iPads or virtual goods used in online games. What service providers must do is what all suppliers must do: create more compelling products.

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Google's Local Strategy: Social and Location are Key

Tablet Usage Affecting Other Devices

Around half of all tablet owners reported being the only ones in their household using their particular tablet, while 43 percent said they shared the tablet with others, according to Nielsen. Eight percent said that while they own a tablet used by other household members, they do not use it themselves.

When asked whether they used other connected devices more often or less often since purchasing a tablet, 35 percent of tablet owners who also owned a desktop computer reported using their desktop less often or not at all, while 32 percent of those who also owned laptops, said they used their laptop less often or never since acquiring a tablet, Nielsen says.

Twenty-seven percent of those who also own eReaders said they use their eReader less often or not at all, the same percentage as those who also own portable media players. One-in-four tablet owners who own portable games consoles are using those devices less often, if at all, since purchasing a tablet.

Are New Tablets Taking a Bite out of Apple's iPad? Not Yet