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Mobile Search – the next big thing?
Annual sales of mobile phones is expected to hit 1 billion in 2009 and there are already phones 4 times more than Internet access in the world is PC.
According Dotmobi (www.dotmobi.net), one third of the world population is connected through Today's mobile phone and about half are expected to be using a mobile phone to the Internet in 2008. IPSOS Survey suggests that 29% of users mobile phones in the UK news and information searches on their phones during 2005.
The statistics are impressive and will no pulse accelerated marketing. But it seems as if we had been hearing about the potential of mobile search market for some time, and yet Very few travel companies appear to participate actively in the area of mobile search and mobile e-commerce revenues are still modest.
Until now, most advertisers have ignored the mobile as a marketing channel, according to a new report from Forrester Research called "Marketing Interactive Channels to Watch in 2007. Suggest that only 13 percent of retailers use mobile text message ads and only 11 percent of advertising upset in the wireless application protocol (WAP) sites. It seems clear that advertisers are waiting for evidence that the market is there before deciding to go themselves.
Barriers and constraints to growth
Despite the huge number of people who have access to mobile Internet is a series of barriers to mobile web adoption. For example;
1. Cost and clarity – storage media plans can be costly and confusing compared to the normal access plans Internet.
2. Screen size – the limited screen size of the labor of many sets have a negative impact on user's browsing experience.
3. Ease of use – given the limited size of the screen are a greater number of clicks needed to reach the content.
4. The lack of content – there a "walled garden" approach to the content offered by many mobile network operators which means that not all mobile users get full access to content.
Competition – the WiFi explosion
Another factor that may have influenced the growth of mobile Internet usage is the increasing availability of Internet access to high speed Wi-Fi in public places. Airports, hotels, bars, libraries and shopping centers are increasingly offering WiFi, and is often free. This has encouraged users to use laptops and PDAs to access the Internet while on the move rather than through mobile phones.
Mobile is perfect advertising platform
Despite these obstacles to growth travel companies can not afford to ignore e-commerce and marketing opportunities of this platform. All above-mentioned barriers to growth are overcoming the time as technology improves and the network providers Content tailor their services to facilitate growth. The issue is not really whether the mobile search market will have an impact, but how you will make an impact.
In many ways mobile is the perfect advertising platform. Always with the consumer, always on, providing personal data profiles, which provides location data is interactive and has multiple billing options already built in.
At present most of the major mobile search are related to ring tones, news, entertainment, maps and directions, directory listings, restaurants and other local services. Up to 60,000 users in the United Kingdom one days are checking train schedules on their mobile phones.
Local search is clearly the natural opportunity for mobile advertising. In the future, more complex searches and larger transactions to be viable as technology advances and users feel more comfortable with using their phones to search.
Travelmole In a recent interview, Nancy Lyndhurst, product manager for O2, said that some of the biggest travel brands such as Cathay Pacific, Accor Hotels and KLM already being successfully marketed mobile technology. She also cites the example of Lastminute who received a £ 3,000 holiday online booking for a customer using your mobile phone.
Mobile marketing spending to reach 11 billion U.S. dollars in 2011
A recent report by the telecom division of Informa Group said that advertisers are expected to spend a massive $ 11 billion in mobile marketing in 2011. predictions optimistic as this have forced the major search engines to begin making a significant investment in the future of mobile search themselves.
Google plans its own mobile division, based in London, "To become the biggest driver of new business" for the company.
Google has developed its own mobile search engine and signed a series of agreements to provide mobile search services of the major portals the operator. Motorola have come agreed to add a dedicated "Google" some of the sets in your hand. LG, one of the top 5 moving companies in the world announced it will begin shipping phones pre-loaded with Google services from this month.
Yahoo has filed a new application called Yahoo Go Mobile, which makes their different services available on some models. Not to be outdone, Microsoft Live Search for Mobile launched in February at the World Congress 3GSM in Barcelona.
There are also a number of start-ups such as JumpTap and resources to bring services in the new mobile search space.
It is clear that the properties of search, in collaboration with handset manufacturers and network services, are intended to drive the sector mobile search forward. With this kind of momentum there is no doubt that the mobile search marketing will eventually become an important part of online marketing is only a matter of when. Could 2007 be the year of mobile search?
About the Author
Mark Scriven is the M.D of
Turismotec Ltd
, a UK based search marketing agency that specialises in the travel sector. Turismotec publish a bi-monthly search marketing newsletter called
etravel.success
.
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