The Super-Connected Commuter

By Hisham Isa, Vice President (Marketing)

"What is your highest priority item to take as you leave the house?"

This is a question that we asked more than 3600 consumers in 20 countries -- from Bangladesh to the United States -- across the BuzzCity Network.

The number one answer by far was the mobile phone, ranking higher than money or keys.

But while mobile devices have become an integral part of people's daily routines, consumers are hungry for more content - particularly local content - and they are open to mobile commerce, a sector that is still largely underdeveloped.

Mobile OS - A Note for Developers and Marketers

By Hisham Isa

One of the hottest topics – and most intense areas of competition – in the mobile industry has been a focus on how to capture feature phone users as they migrate to smartphones. But as I pointed out in my last post, there's also a large market segment that is still sticking with feature phones. This is clear from the success of the Nokia S40 OS, which is powering cheap feature phones that offer many of the same features as their more expensive 'intelligent' siblings. In addition, carriers in several markets are eliminating phone subsidies, so whereas consumers used to feel that they were getting a free phone (though paying for it through higher monthly plans), the comparison has now changed.

So what does all this mean for marketers and developers?

The BuzzCity Report : Vol 3 Issue 2

The latest edition of The BuzzCity Report is now available. In the first quarter of this year we delivered more than 61 billion paid ads; a 36% Y-on-Y growth against Q1 of 2012.

In this report we look at those hotspots that have attracted advertising dollars and we believe will continue to do so in the coming months. You will find results of a new survey which reveals travel trends among the ever connected consumer. We believe this opens up more opportunities for developers and marketers as advancements in mobile devices and changes in user behaviour invariably opens up possibilities for local content and applications.

   Among the Top Markets in the first quarter are:-

1. India 16.98 billion impressions
2. Indonesia 8.2 bil
3. South Africa 2.53 bil
4. Nigeria 2.48 bil
5. Saudi Arabia 2.41 bil
6. United States 2.37 bil
7. United Kingdom 1.84 bil

The coming months will also see more disruption in the mobile industry as more carriers abandon device subsidies. We think this will drive price sensitive consumers to turn to cheaper but powerful devices disrupting the growth path of many manufacturers and affect the development of content.

For more details, please download the report or the summarised infographic.

Mobile OS: It's not all Android and iOS (Part 1)

By Hisham Isa

A funny thing happened on the way to the mobile store . . .

While industry watchers were focusing on the growing dominance of smartphones and media reports highlighted the contest between Android and iPhones, another operating system has snuck into the picture.

Well it hasn't so much snuck in as it already had a 20% market share on the BuzzCity Network, but it's refused to go away and grown stronger. Not only that, this OS runs devices that are largely considered to be, get this, feature phones!

At the same time, carriers are beginning to shift away from a business model that has given a substantial boost to smartphone manufacturers: they're choosing to no longer give away costly handsets to customers.

More about that in a moment. First though, enough for being cryptic. Have you figured out which manufacturer is smiling big now and which OS is capturing an unexpectedly large market share?