It's not all Android and iOS

By Hisham Isa

Within a few weeks, Mozilla – the not-for-profit company that has largely made a name for itself in the Internet space – is set to make waves in the mobile industry with the launch of a new Firefox operating system for mobile phones.

The company is already offering free phones to developers who work on its apps.

Mozilla is not the only company trying to push Android and Apple out of the headlines . . . and off of consumers' phones.

Jolla, Tizen and Ubuntu Touch are also hoping to become top-tier smartphone operating systems.

In this article, I'll take a look at a few key questions as well as the implications of a changing ecosystem for consumers, developers and advertisers.

Case Study : Social Media and Customer Engagement

The success of social media marketing is often seen when big brands (and celebrities!) run campaigns that attract media attention when they get more Facebook fans or Twitter followers. 

There are a range of features besides the basic ‘likes’ that can be useful for achieving marketing goals, but proven tactics usually involve promotional giveaways. This is hardly surprising.  Decades before online social media even existed, businesses were already implementing successful contests, sweepstakes, challenges and promotional campaigns.

Case Study : Mobile Industry - Product Launches

Mobile ownership, content consumption and advertiser activity is all on the rise. More than 13 markets across the BuzzCity Network now serve a billion paid ads or more every quarter. Overall, in the first quarter of 2013, our network grew 36% year-on-year.

As consumers spend more time on their phones, businesses in the mobile space - including operators and manufacturers - have been among the first to take advantage of this growth by creating new products and publicising the launches via mobile. For example . . .

India: So who's advertising?

By Manish Mishra, VP Business Development and Country Manager (India)

In my earlier post, I discussed how fast the Indian mobile market is growing as well as how both the smartphone and feature phone segments of the market are important.

At this point, if I was making a presentation to prospective clients, they'd want to see some examples of the types of companies that are using mobile. So, let me share a number of cases with you here.

INDIA 2013 : Penetrating the Media 'Dark Areas'

By Manish Mishra, VP Business Development and Country Manager (India)

Smartphone penetration in India has reached a 'tipping point' according to many analysts – and while the number of smartphone users is certain to increase sharply over the next one to two years, advertisers would be remiss to overlook the growing feature phone market as well.

That's right. The size of India's mobile market is growing so rapidly that we expect the number of feature phone and smartphone users to both increase substantially, presenting marketers with a range of opportunities, particularly when it comes to reaching consumers who are traditionally difficult to reach.

In this article, I'd like to share with you a few of the factors fueling mobile growth in India as well as examples of companies that are already capitalising on this trend.