Wall Street backs mobile Internet October 27, 2009
Posted by Alexander Gregori in Advertising & Marketing, Development.trackback
Last week I posted a discussion in my LinkedIn groups entitled “Apps or mobisites“. The response was absolutely overwhelming and the discussion proved to be heated. It was interesting to note that the majority of comments came from developers, with maybe 15 – 20% of comments posted by marketers.
What was furthermore telling was the fact that the majority of developers defended apps, while the majority of marketers favored mobisites. This is not surprising. There are over four billion mobile phones in this world and the majority of them can access the mobile Internet. On the other hand there are only a few hundred million smartphones, notably iPhone and Blackberry, that can “receive” an app.
The developers praise the “functionality” and “richness” of apps, which they claim make them far sexier than mobisites. Marketers mainly pointed out that you need to reach the biggest audience possible and let the consumer decide if he or she is interested in your product. More moderate views argued that it depends on your target market and objectives whether you should use an app or a mobisite, but even they concluded that the trend is going towards mobisites.
The pattern of developers voting for the “latest” available technology, and selling it to clients, is clear. Herein lies, in my opinion, one of the problems. What does a developer know about marketing? A top mobile marketing strategist will look at the overall marketing strategy and objectives of a company first and then suggest the best mobile marketing tool to support it. A developer is so fascinated by what he can build that he often forgets the real marketing needs of a clients.
One contributor suggested that we should look at where the money flows and bet on that. However, his suggestion was focused on where the money of the consumer flows. This is not always an indication of where things are going as Apple’s Steve Jobs pointed out when he argued that sometimes you have to show the consumer a product before he knows that he wants it. His iPhone is a good example.
So it was interesting to read that Wall Street is now voting to put their money behind the mobile Internet, in line with Googles’ CEO Eric Schmidt’s statement that “The next big wave in advertising is the mobile Internet”. Mickey Alam Khan, the editor of Mobile Marketer, writes that countless legitimate industry analysts have produced diligent research documenting the rise of the mobile Web and concludes: “But such is the fawning nature of Silicon Valley and its hype-minded conferences, bloggers and press that one pronouncement from Ms. Meeker and a 68-page, chart-riddled PowerPoint presentation is all it takes for the truth to sink in.”
Read the full article here: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/opinion/editorials/4492.html
Following the industry and leading companies as well as the statistics on apps, I find it interesting there is even a point to question. This is similar to discussing the merits of a smart phone vs non.. Or the mobile device for purchases vs the computer or the internet vs brick and mortar. There is room for both and each have the proponents. I am a true fan of Mickey’s and have been a guest there several times. His insight and connections within the entire mobile industry is staggering. He has the gift of being able to retain info, stats, disseminate and inform in lay terms the confusing array of sites, services and apps. What I find most interesting is the number of businesses which are willing to put investment dollars into app development when stats report the ROI is not there. Most apps are used for less than a week after download. The need to reinvent the wheel is high. What is relevant is the connection with the brand, loyalty, integration, ease of use and the immediate interaction. Mobi sites can satisfy this need at an affordable price offering a ROI. The integration of the sms campaign (strategic and planned) with great creative and adherence to the target market is a very logical approach for most businesses. Corporations may find it more informative and with many services and products the app approach may be more beneficial but again, the relevance, target, goal and analysis are not to be ignored when deciding.
Holly, you are SPOT ON. Thank you for your comment