Commentary : The Pull Between Mobile Apps And Mobile Websites v2

More and more companies are investing in mobile, but less and less are planning the right mobile strategy.

The push to build Mobile Apps is strong.  But the ROI of mobile websites is definitely better.

So forget the massive media hype and think strategically about your company's advertising and branding strategies.

Commentary : Mobile Banking Hope for Haiti

It was not long ago that people around the world were using their mobile phones to distribute aid money via SMS to charities working with those affected by the Haiti earthquake. Now, we’re looking at a new kind of mobile aid for Haiti. Last week the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it is launching a $10 million fund for mobile banking services in the country.

The earthquake destroyed over one-third of the country’s banks, ATMs and money transfer stations leading to a severe cash shortage for the survivors. This meant that there were severe problems for those remaining in the country to access cash which might have been in their accounts or which was being transferred by relatives overseas. In fact, despite the recovery of many of the traditional banking institutions in Haiti, only 15% of Haitians had a bank account prior to the disaster so their requirements extend beyond the rebuilding of a physical bank branch.

As most Haitians have access to a mobile phone, the most obvious solution seems to be the establishment of a mobile banking system.

Commentary: Mobile Gaming Consumption Trends

There was an interesting article from Mobile Insider posted on the 15 April 2010 analysing comScore data. The data looks at mobile gaming trends between February 2009 and February 2010. BuzzCity’s mobile gaming platform Djuzz also allows us to constantly monitor trends in gaming and handset preference so it was interesting to compare results.

We agree with the comScore data when it comes to feature phones enjoying the lion’s share of mobile gaming and application usage. Our data shows that Nokia and Samsung phones – specifically those that are three to four years old - are particularly popular with mobile gamers.

Commentary: Java Games from Orange and HMV

At BuzzCity, we were quite interested to see the recent announcement by Orange and HMV that they are working together to launch a new mobile gaming service.

There are some clear benefits to this partnership. The service will be available across any network. And it will work on more than 1,000 Java enabled handsets. A different company would have restricted the gaming platform to Smartphones, so this is a refreshing move by Orange. It will be interesting to see how other operators respond.

At BuzzCity, we also take an open platform approach by providing advertisers, consumers, developers and publishers access to innovative mobile platforms regardless of their access to technology.

The involvement of two major brands also validates our hypothesis that mobile gaming is growing exponentially. Djuzz -- our new gaming platform -- was only launched last month, but it already receives nearly 30,000 downloads a day. Djuzz match-makes a gaming audience hungry for more content with creative game developers across the globe.

Commentary: Infusing Mobile

Yahoo! recently announced that it's disbanding its mobile division and will redeploy employees from this group throughout the company. Rather than giving up on mobile, Yahoo! is recognising that it needs to be part of every activity.

At BuzzCity, we welcome this move. There's a lesson here for businesses everywhere. 

Commentary: Working Together, Telecoms Can Ease Bandwidth Crunch

By Hisham Isa, Vice President (Marketing)

Mobile networks are facing a crunch. There's just not enough bandwidth for everything right now. So, we're very pleased to see the launch of a new initiative that aims to make applications more efficient:

The Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) -- consisting of 24 major telecommunications operators including China Mobile, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, TeliaSonera and Vodafone -- intends to build the world's first open platform delivering applications to all mobile phone users.

Commentary : Mobile Web Beats Mobile App

Continental Airlines recently placed ads on a mobile website (whitepages.com) and inside the directory's iPhone application. 

Which did better?

Commentary : Google's Directory for The Noughties Generation

If you like supporting your local restaurant or shop instead of the nearest chain outpost, then Google has just made your life a bit easier. The US launch of Favourite Places means consumers can find and review over 100,000 local businesses on the move by using their mobile.

Commentary : Mobile Ad Networks and The Need to Stand Out.

Mickey Alam Khan cut close to the bone when he recently said “One of the issues that mobile ad networks face is positioning, or rather the lack of it.”

So, how did mobile ad networks find themselves in this position?

Commentary : Mobile Net 'heading for data jam' ?

News out of the UK – Mobile internet is becoming increasingly popular but should we expect repercussions?

Whether we want to be the first with the new Cheryl Cole ringtone or the new Fifa game, we all love to download things to our mobile phones. However, is our urge to download set to cause mobile operators a massive headache?

Commentary : When Will Mobile Advertising Overtake the Internet?

Very interesting news out of the UK.

The trade association for digital advertising there, the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) has reported that the UK is the first major economy to spend more on internet ads than on television. According to The Guardian, TV advertising has been the leading ad medium for almost half a century. But it took the internet just 10 years to take the lead.

UK advertisers spent £1.75bn on internet advertising in the first six months of 2009, compared to £1.6bn on TV advertising. Back in 1998, UK advertisers spent just £19.4m on internet ads.
Will mobile be able to overtake the internet in an even shorter period of time?

The IAB notes five key drivers for the success of online ads. Unsurprisingly, these are also key success factors for Mobile albeit with one very important difference:

Commentary: WSJ and Niche Content

Rupert Murdoch has announced plans to start charging mobile readers of the Wall Street Journal. Before the end of the year, people who access the WSJ on Blackberries and iPhones will pay US$2 per week. Mobile access to the journal would cost a dollar a week for subscribers to the newspaper.

At BuzzCity, we applaud moves by print media to mobilise their content. New applications meanwhile make it easier to package content for mobile devices and improvements in the handsets themselves - such as larger, clearer screens - make it much easier to read.

So what's still missing here ?