Comments on: Evidence against the iPhone Mobsession http://mobsessed.co.uk/2010/04/evidence-against-the-iphone-mobsession/ Fri, 07 Oct 2011 07:51:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: mobiThinking http://mobsessed.co.uk/2010/04/evidence-against-the-iphone-mobsession/comment-page-1/#comment-249 mobiThinking Tue, 27 Apr 2010 05:40:33 +0000 http://mobsessed.co.uk/?p=451#comment-249 This isn't iPhone bashing its realism. It's a nice handset, but it's just a small proportion of mobile phone sales globally – about 2.2 percent in 2009. I suspect the root of this mystery i.e. why some companies direct marketing/development funds into native apps for the iPhone (or other niche platforms), when it seems more logical to the rest of us to invest in mobile Web and/or SMS that addresses all customers whatever their handset, is partly media hype and partly lack of education. The iPhone gets so much coverage and benefits from much misinformation (including misinterpretation of skewed statistics from metrics reports from mobile ad networks) that marketing folks think it has a much larger share of the market. My understanding is that this native app thing is a Western phenomenon. In Japan – where as we all know mobile is light years ahead the operators retained tight control over devices and standards so fragmentation has been kept to a minimum and marketers and developers target everyone easily regardless of their handsets. Casting a wide and inclusive net pays dividends: McDonalds Japan has 16 million registered users on its mobile site – that's more than 12 percent of the Japanese population – the company’s mobile site generates more than 100 million mobile page views per month – and 4.5 million use McDonalds Japan's mobile Web based coupon service. Why did the west stop following Japan's lead on mobile? From the global perspective Apple shipped 39 million units (that's the highest estimate) in total in 2008 and 2009. Let's assume that every one of them uses the mobile Internet that's still only 7.8 percent of the 500 million global mobile Web users (and that's probably conservative estimate considering official stats give China alone 233 million mobile Web users). If marketing folks knew the true stats would they still focus budgets on native applications for a single platform, instead of investing in mobile Web and SMS to service all customers whatever their handset? It is a mystery to me why this occurs in mobile, but not in any other medium… how many brands would run a TV ad that only worked on one niche type of television? These stats come from here: http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats The McDonald's stats are from here: http://mobithinking.com/guide-mobile-Web-Japan This isn’t iPhone bashing its realism. It’s a nice handset, but it’s just a small proportion of mobile phone sales globally – about 2.2 percent in 2009.
I suspect the root of this mystery i.e. why some companies direct marketing/development funds into native apps for the iPhone (or other niche platforms), when it seems more logical to the rest of us to invest in mobile Web and/or SMS that addresses all customers whatever their handset, is partly media hype and partly lack of education. The iPhone gets so much coverage and benefits from much misinformation (including misinterpretation of skewed statistics from metrics reports from mobile ad networks) that marketing folks think it has a much larger share of the market.
My understanding is that this native app thing is a Western phenomenon.
In Japan – where as we all know mobile is light years ahead the operators retained tight control over devices and standards so fragmentation has been kept to a minimum and marketers and developers target everyone easily regardless of their handsets. Casting a wide and inclusive net pays dividends: McDonalds Japan has 16 million registered users on its mobile site – that’s more than 12 percent of the Japanese population – the company’s mobile site generates more than 100 million mobile page views per month – and 4.5 million use McDonalds Japan’s mobile Web based coupon service.
Why did the west stop following Japan’s lead on mobile?
From the global perspective Apple shipped 39 million units (that’s the highest estimate) in total in 2008 and 2009. Let’s assume that every one of them uses the mobile Internet that’s still only 7.8 percent of the 500 million global mobile Web users (and that’s probably conservative estimate considering official stats give China alone 233 million mobile Web users).
If marketing folks knew the true stats would they still focus budgets on native applications for a single platform, instead of investing in mobile Web and SMS to service all customers whatever their handset? It is a mystery to me why this occurs in mobile, but not in any other medium… how many brands would run a TV ad that only worked on one niche type of television?
These stats come from here: http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats
The McDonald’s stats are from here: http://mobithinking.com/guide-mobile-Web-Japan

]]> By: Carnival of the Mobilists #221 http://mobsessed.co.uk/2010/04/evidence-against-the-iphone-mobsession/comment-page-1/#comment-246 Carnival of the Mobilists #221 Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:06:13 +0000 http://mobsessed.co.uk/?p=451#comment-246 [...] shattered iPhone graces Mobsessed.co.uk’s Carl Martin’s post Evidence against the iPhone Mobsession. He argues that since there is a scant 4% iPhone ownership in the UK, money spent marketing iPhone [...] [...] shattered iPhone graces Mobsessed.co.uk’s Carl Martin’s post Evidence against the iPhone Mobsession. He argues that since there is a scant 4% iPhone ownership in the UK, money spent marketing iPhone [...]

]]> By: uberVU - social comments http://mobsessed.co.uk/2010/04/evidence-against-the-iphone-mobsession/comment-page-1/#comment-233 uberVU - social comments Fri, 23 Apr 2010 07:25:13 +0000 http://mobsessed.co.uk/?p=451#comment-233 <strong>Social comments and analytics for this post...</strong> This post was mentioned on Twitter by carlmartin: Blogged@mobsessed :: Evidence against the iPhone Mobsession (feat @Ew4n, @tomiahonen + @indigo102) - http://bit.ly/au6eoK - #isyndrome... Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by carlmartin: Blogged@mobsessed :: Evidence against the iPhone Mobsession (feat @Ew4n, @tomiahonen + @indigo102) – http://bit.ly/au6eoK – #isyndrome…

]]> By: graeme http://mobsessed.co.uk/2010/04/evidence-against-the-iphone-mobsession/comment-page-1/#comment-224 graeme Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:23:32 +0000 http://mobsessed.co.uk/?p=451#comment-224 Thanks for sharing Carl - I've also been meaning to put a bit of a rebuttal together for the iPhone bandwagon, as I think your point c is the one that is motivating a lot of brands at the moment (currently being followed by the ticking of an iPad app box). I keep coming back to Tomi's Virgin Australia festival guide - available on something like 90% of handsets in the country (I would point to the link, but it is hidden deep in the 8000 odd words of his How to do clever mobile advertising post here http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2010/03/how-to-do-clever-mobile-advertising-in-2010-dont-copy-web.html - and i'm sure you've read it anyway) Thanks for sharing Carl – I’ve also been meaning to put a bit of a rebuttal together for the iPhone bandwagon, as I think your point c is the one that is motivating a lot of brands at the moment (currently being followed by the ticking of an iPad app box). I keep coming back to Tomi’s Virgin Australia festival guide – available on something like 90% of handsets in the country (I would point to the link, but it is hidden deep in the 8000 odd words of his How to do clever mobile advertising post here http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2010/03/how-to-do-clever-mobile-advertising-in-2010-dont-copy-web.html – and i’m sure you’ve read it anyway)

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