Mobile Fix – The international edition

In the latest Mobile Fix, Simon Andrews, founder of the full service mobile agency addictive!, shares some international learning from Sao Paulo; gives examples of how mobile is changing lives around the world; and talks Android, Brand Cathedrals and Chips…

The International edition…

Sao Paulo is a fascinating city, with both very rich and very poor – and an economy that is growing really quickly. (They also have an interesting approach to outdoor – they banned it.) And, yes, mobile is growing fast too, evidenced by a great turn out of brands and agencies at the MMA Forum. Whilst there, we saw new data showing that smartphone sales in Brazil were up by 128% year on year and we saw lots of examples of smart mobile marketing from local agencies like Pontomobi and f.biz.

As well as smart use of SMS and Voice there were good examples of apps for local brands – including an interesting idea from PontoMobi for Nivea Suncream where local weather forecasts were combined with the user data on their skintype to suggest the most appropriate suncream products for that day – and remind when the cream needed reapplying.

Other international examples of the power of mobile include mobile money in Kenya, where 10% of the countries GDP goes through the M-Pesa system every month. Over 60% of the Kenyan population use this system to transfer money by text.

And the rapid adoption of mobile caused by this utility is now driving huge competition amongst operators as new entrants try to lure people from the Vodafone subsidiary Safaricom who run M-Pesa, with lower and lower prices. But, as a great example to operators around the world, services that solve a problem for people are excellent ways to combat churn.

Another good example is Kerala in India where a study showed that mobile has allowed fisherman to increase their income by around 8%.  Before mobile, fisherman landed their catch at their local port and had to take whatever price was offered. With mobile they call around to a number of different ports to see who is paying the best price for the fish they have caught – and sail to the highest payer.

Mobile has such an enriching effect on peoples lives in developing markets. Indonesia has 210 million mobile users (5 times more that internet users) and are consequently the highest consumers of mobile ads in the world. And for Facebook, Indonesia is it’s third biggest market globally.

Android share forecast to grow – and eclipse Apple

Piper Jaffray research suggests that the Android operating system will grow to 50% share of the smartphone market – versus around 20% to 30% for Apple. But they still believe Apple will make more money than Google.

They also suggest that for Nokia and RIM to compete they will have to switch to Android. Scathingly, the reports label them as hardware companies that are dabbling in software whilst Apple and Google are software companies focused on creating great operating systems.

Brand Cathedrals

One area where Apple continue to win is in retail – Android are much less proficient at managing the retail experience and until they can match the slickness of Apple, we think they’ll struggle. When we pitched for the launch of 3 in the UK, we talked to them about the importance of retail and tried to sell them the idea of Brand Cathedrals where people would come to enjoy the experience of the brand – and to buy.  No-one has done this better than Apple. And for a purchase like a smartphone, a hands on experience is really important.

Chips

The other key factor in predicting the future of smartphones and calling winners and losers is the chips that are available.  Samsung talk about how new chips will make their next generation smartphone able to drive other screens – looking towards a time when we’ll dock our phone as the brains of a stationary computer, with a monitor and keyboard connected to our phones.

Other things worth noting;

• Video on mobile is growing fast – YouTube has 160 million mobile views every day.
• Flash content is now possible on iphones and ipads – sort of – and Adobe shares shot up by 10% on the news. Is Apple becoming more open? Time will tell.
• Nokia buys Motally to improve their Ovi store underlining how important metrics and analytics are to mobile.
• Mobile search queries up 400% at Google – from the same analyst who told us 10% of all Google searches are now mobile.

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