Mobile Media For Business: Is Your Brand Ready?
OK…my apologies. I have been extremely busy @ work, and have failed to follow my own advice about blogging. So, my apologies. But now, with ‘insanity’ almost behind me – it is time to start up again, and I promise the commitment is there – I hate not listening to the words I preach on a daily basis.
So let’s begin.
Mobile Media.
It seems so long ago – the first time you purchased a cell phone. Do you remember that day? Maybe you remember graduating from that phone to a bulky PDA or clunky smartphone…and then it came. The iPhone. One day out of the blue – a mobile phone you can use not only for phone calls, but for something with a greater branding strength. A mobile game. 
The iPhone swung a door open in June 2007 for mobile devices. A survey by iSuppli’s Consumer Track said that U.S. cell-phone users report spending less than 3 percent of phone-use time on games. However, on the iPhone, that percentage shoots up dramatically – more than 9 percent on the first iPhone and 3 percent on the iPhone 3G.
And when piling numbers together – it is hard to not recognize two platforms – Nintendo and Sony. Each of these giants created two handheld devices that allow you to play games and access online features – the Nintendo DS and Sony’s PSP. According to the industry analysts and sales data – Apple is on track to sell an easy 40 million devices (iPhones & iTouch) or more a year that are capable of playing games. So Apple is on pace to sell about as many game-capable handhelds in a single year as Nintendo had done with the DS.
Wow.
With these numbers in place, it seems Apple is poised to take the reigns when it comes to handheld gaming. Apple has said it’s had more than 200 million downloads from its App Store since the store debuted in July 2008. Of 8,000 applications on the App Store, more than 1,500 are games – just two months ago there were only 900 games. In addition, games hold the #1 spots as the most popular iPhone applications downloaded in the App Store.
In October, the Mobile Metrics Report by AdMob, said the iPhone has become the number one handset worldwide by count of ads requested. This is huge – overtaking giants such as Motorola and Nokia – who have held that placement for a number of years.
The Future.
The iPhone is no secret anymore – many, if not nearly everyone has heard of it at some point – the question for brands is – how do I monetize this? Brands alike need to be creative at their approach – whether they might be a ‘sticky’ brand who already has a name in the market, or maybe you’re a new brand thinking the mobile market is going to increase your exposure – you have to play it safe and think about it carefully.
iPhone applications and games are a fun way to create and place yourself into the market – but they can be expensive to develop. Another reason you have to consider this strategy would be to think ‘what potential does my application or game have in the market?” Just because it is there does not mean you should or have to do it. Don’t feel pressured by others pushing you away from that realistic outlook.
On the other side, don’t feel that it wouldn’t be worth it if you can develop it at a low to medium price range – the viral exposure and hundreds of millions of people your game or application might be downloaded by, and the pure exposure factor into the market – it is foolish to not at least try the market out. Your ROI may not be completely lost if you charged for the application/game - where you would take home 70 percent of any profits made through selling the application. But, chances are, your application/game will capture a much larger amount of downloads if you push it into the market as a ‘free’ download.
Fin.
I expected this. I think we all did. Just look at how this election has boiled down with only 33 days left until we vote for our next “great” leader.