Smartphones have certainly changed the way we view and use mobile devices whether it is for personal or business use or both and with every new version, there seems no end to the consumer appetite for them. Technology is becoming better, prices are more competitive, graphics are fantastic but are smartphones actually being adopted at predicted rates?

Consider for a moment that apart from the Blackberry which has been the stalwart of the enterprise market for some years, smartphones in general are a relatively new product for most of us. Google only acquired Android 6 years ago and Apple only unveiled iPhone in 2007. It was probably less easy to predict the meteoric rise that smartphones would enjoy by 2011 back then. Late 2009 and most writers were predicting smartphone sales would continue to boom in 2010 but that was hardly rocket science. After all, Apple, who sold 5 million iPhone units in its first year had by early 2010 sold 51 million, so that was a pretty good indicator that things in the smartphone market were going well!

When Gartner released their smartphone sales stats in 2008, they reported better than expected results despite the overall economic downturn worldwide. Fast forward 3 years and even with recession, Smartphones in 2011 are not only selling at an amazing rate in the US but also worldwide with no reports of any slowdown in sales. Smartphone sales in the Asia Pacific region for example are set to grow by 30% to 2015, with North America at 21% growth and Western Europe at just under 20%.

It would seem that predictions are fairly accurate and that smartphones are currently being adopted at predicted rates. Nielsen research tells us that 1 in 2 consumers will have a smartphone by the end of 2011. With mobile commerce and mobile banking uptake also on the rise, this too would have a huge impact on sales.

Smartphone are certainly being adopted at predicted rates and seem to be on target to reach that magical1 in 2 consumers by this Christmas. These sorts of figures matter to those in the mobile marketing industry as its important to know what their target audience is buying and using. Mobile marketing is arguably the fastest growing marketing strategy these days to promote brands, businesses, services and organizations, so if you haven’t yet considered it, why not take a closer look today.

Want to find out more about Mobile marketing, then visit www.txt2get.com on how to choose the best solution for your needs.

Love him or hate him, you’ve got to admit that he’s powerful. James Bond is probably the longest running and most financially successful character ever.

So what if we were to take marketing advice from James Bond? Think of all the ways we could rise to the top. I can’t think of a better example than SMS services.

SMS services use computer-based software to enable businesses and marketers to send and receive text messages en masse. SMS services have a range of uses, from large-scale SMS marketing campaigns to local businesses sending out SMS appointment reminders to clients.

SMS services make interaction between customers and organisations as easy as possible. When used in advertising, SMS services typically increase ad response by around 2-3x. Additionally, marketers and advertisers can see the exact number of responses and the time and date they came in, revealing which ads are working and which are not.

There are hundreds of SMS service suppliers around. But because there’s no user’s guide and as of yet, no industry ‘best practice’ has been developed, many organisations are missing out on the potential benefits of SMS services. So if Her Majesty’s Secret Service was actually SMS Services, what could we learn from Bond?

SMS Services Tip 1: Be Charming

James Bond’s skills with women might even be more famous than his sharpness with a gun. He was undeniably charming, and he made interesting offers.

One of the prime reasons that SMS services can have mediocre performance is that the offer is just not good enough. Using SMS services means advertising will have an SMS call-to-action, something like “text CAR to 19 33 33 for a test drive.” It’s pretty simple. If the offer or benefit for the customer is not good enough, they will look elsewhere. So in wielding SMS services we should aim to please, just like Mr. Bond.

SMS Services Tip 2: Be Timeless

James Bond has made it through the Cold War, the Internet revolution and Facebook, and he’s still relevant and powerful. I think it’s because he knows when to be loud and when to retreat for a little while. It’s called being understated, and it can apply to SMS services to give them more longevity.

There’s a great blog post by Seth Godin called ‘In defense of RSS,’ about this same ability to last through time. Godin explains that RSS is effective and long-lasting because it’s “quiet and fast and professional.”

These words could easily describe Bond himself, and should apply to how we use SMS services. It’s great to get on the bandwagon of SMS services, but for it to work, we need to maintain timelessness and professionalism. A text message can speak louder than other marketing words, and it’s important to say the right thing.

SMS Services Tip 3: Be Ruthless With Yourself

Today I discovered a Bond secret: the ‘forgotten’ Bond. He’s an Australian, his name is George Lazenby, and he’s probably the worst Bond ever. He just wasn’t right for the role. He was too cold, too calculating, not human enough. He left after one film.

What’s the message here? If what we’re doing isn’t right, let’s change it. We’re still exploring how to best communicate with SMS services.

The January advertising campaign for Melbourne’s Box Hill TAFE shows us the truth in this idea. Box Hill’s advertising used SMS services to encourage interest in their 2011 courses. Potential students got course information by texting ‘STUDY’ to 19 33 33. But what came as a surprise was that initially the SMS service got a disappointing audience response. This is because the ads were broadcast on shopping centre tele-screens, which just wasn’t right for Box Hill Institute’s audience.

However, when the medium was changed to TV ads, ad response brought from SMS services was 15 times higher. When using SMS services the choice of platform, audience, offer and call-to-action is crucial. Just like George Lazenby as Bond; if an SMS service isn’t right the first time, it should be changed.

SMS Services Tip 4: Take it Shaken, Not Stirred.

SMS services are a new solution to the old problem of how to increase and effectively measure ad response. In this way, their innovation operates like Bond’s martini: shaken, not stirred. SMS services bring the element of new ideas to traditional advertising.

Initially, people may be suspicious of what you’re doing (Bond’s bartender certainly always was). But the success of the new martini shows us that some traditions can be broken. SMS services break the tradition of not knowing how many people an ad is reaching. It also does away with the tradition of getting mediocre response levels.

It’s pretty simple, really. For SMS service success we need to be charming, timeless, ruthless and strong enough to break away from tradition. It helps to be Sean Connery too, but I guess we can’t have everything.

This article was written by Andrew Campbell, the Country Manager of TXT2GET Australia. TXT2GET are the SMS service providers of Aus, NZ and the US. Read a brief explanation of TXT2GET’s SMS services, or visit the website to find out how SMS services can earn you passive income as an SMS marketing agent.

The smartphone has become as synonymous with the notion of what makes a business man as the briefcase once was. It is the must-have status symbol in whatever make or model, whether it is Android, Windows, iPhone, Palm or the ever-popular Blackberry. It is how today’s modern professional stays up to date and stays in touch wherever he is in the world. The smartphone’s ability to allow instant access to email, text, the Web amongst other things has been heralded as one of the ultimate tools to keep communication flowing; it is efficient and allows for better overall productivity.

Until recent years, RIM’s Blackberry was the smartphone with the stronghold on the enterprise market but now there are other companies vying to challenge Blackberry for a bigger share of the business market, not least of all, Apple. With its trendy iPhone 4 currently flooding the market and iPhone 5 heralded as the next big thing for Apple and rumored to be due for release in June, could the iPhone really challenge and capture the business market.

Blackberry has been the king of business devices for such a long time now but with Apple’s fifth generation iPhone announced recently, its dominance could be under threat. Take a well-known bank in the UK which in 2010 announced that it was migrating its workforce from Blackberry to iPhone. That company has 75,000 employees and this type of shift can also be seen by some companies in the US. It would seem that iPhone became much more palatable to businesses when it added a number of critical security features. Blackberry has always prided itself and built a reputation for being secure, which is what businesses need and demand.

How does Apple itself market towards the business world? It describes as “…the most powerful, flexible, and intuitive phone ever. With new features like multitasking, FaceTime video calling, improved mail, and enhanced security, iPhone makes even more sense for your business.” Some critics say that Apple does not provide the powerful enterprise tools needed by the larger corporates. No doubt Apple would disagree.

Apple definitely seems to be making a concerted effort to capture at least some element of the business market but whether it can truly challenge Blackberry remains to be seen. It does seem to be extending its reach however and it is one to watch. If you have a business and have not yet taken a close look at what mobile marketing can do for you, seize the day!

Learn more about mobile marketing. Stop by www.txt2get.com where you can find out all about TXT2GET and what it can do for you.

The smartphone was certainly on many people’s Christmas wish list in 2010 with Nielsen reporting that one-third of mobile owners in the US had a smartphone by the end of December last year. Smartphones were definitely rocking and according to Gartner’s statistics of the staggering 1.6 billion mobile phones sold globally that year, 297 million were smartphones! That’s 72% more smartphone sales than in 2009. So given this huge upward trend and the phenomenal popularity of smartphones for both business and personal use, is smartphone adoption expected to stagnate any time soon?

For lovers of statistics, even they may be surprised to know that over 1.6 billion mobile phones sold globally just in 2010 alone and of those almost 300 million were smartphones. Pretty phenomenal statistics; one could wonder, therefore, if having sold so many last year, whether the numbers will plateau or fall. Looking at just the US market, it would seem not. According to Nielsen, their forecast is that 1 in every 2 mobile phone owners will have a smartphone by 2011 and that would mean that smartphones would overtake feature phone sales for the first time.

The future development of smartphones looks very bright indeed with dual-core processors, 3D display capability, front-facing cameras, improved video capabilities, smarter phone chips allowing for use of multiple SIM cards – all these concepts either just introduced, about to be introduced or something for the near future. With so much going on and with every new smartphone being announced, it can be hard for many of us to keep up.

Looking ahead to what reviewers say US consumers are likely to purchase in 2011, Smartphones even outrank laptops and desktop computers. This, they say, is partly due to continued low retail pricing of handsets and overall lower-cost monthly data plans. Demand is strong and expected to increase over the coming year. So smartphone adoption is not expected to stagnate anytime soon either in the US or worldwide.

Whether it is iPhone, Android, Blackberry or the like, how smartphone sales are trending now and in the future, is very important for mobile marketers so they can identify their target audience. Like smartphone sales, Mobile marketing is also trending upwards and if you haven’t yet considered it to enhance your business, today is definitely the day to take a closer look.

Want to find out more about mobile marketing, then visit www.txt2get.com on how to choose the best solution for your needs.

In the world of mobile today, there is a vast range of mobile features, applications and services that can be found on an equally wide range of mobile devices and platforms. Because of this wide range however, mobile developers are discovering a key issue in mobile, which is Fragmentation. With mobile being such an exciting and promising venture, it pays to know what exactly mobile fragmentation is, and why it is seen as an issue.

Mobile Fragmentation refers to the varying specifications and capabilities of the vast range of mobile devices and platforms across the world, and the inability for designing and developing a single application that can operate across the board. This often means that many mobile ventures have to target a single device in their strategies as designing and developing the application for each of the major devices and platforms is time consuming and highly cost inefficient, in both the short term and the long term.

If we look at how far mobile fragmentation goes, then we can better understand the degree to which it can become an issue. As Damith C. Rajapakse, lecturer at National University of Singapore School of Computing says “Mobile fragmentation includes; hardware diversity, including “differences in screen parameters (size, colour depth, orientation, aspect ratio), memory size, processing power, presence of additional hardware (camera, voice recorder), and connectivity options (Bluetooth, IR, GPRS, etc.).” Mobile fragmentation is also caused by “Software diversity: Platform diversity, such as differences in platform/OS (Symbian, Nokia OS, RIM OS, Apple OS X, etc.), and differences in multimedia support (e.g., codecs), maximum binary size allowed, etc.

To further indicate the extent of the issue, Mr Rajapakse says that “mobile fragmentation also stems from implementation diversity, resulting from implementation bugs/quirks and is considered one of the most tiresome type of fragmentations, according to practitioners.” There is also “user-preference diversity, in elements including language, style, etc. environmental diversity, such as diversity in the deployment infrastructure (e.g., branding by carrier, gateway characteristics, restrictions on access to outside the network etc.), locale, local standards.”

Mobile fragmentation is most certainly a significant hurdle in the development and design process of mobile then. It possesses a seemingly never-ending range of diversities that make a single and functional application for all major mobile devices and platforms impossible. However, with the debate about whether or not it is in fact a detriment to the evolution of mobile as whole still raging, only time will tell if the “magic bullet” myth is in fact a myth, or if it is a holy grail waiting to bring mobile into a new age.

Want to find out more about mobile marketing, then visit www.txt2get.com on how to choose the best solution for your needs.

With mobile being one of the largest and most diverse global markets, diversities in devices and platforms are inevitable. So too then is the resulting ‘fragmentation’ of mobile. However, is this fragmentation any real detriment to the growth and success of mobile? Or does it simply reflect the nature of the globally diverse market? Is mobile fragmentation helping or hurting the growth of mobile?

As discussed in a previous article, we have seen how mobile fragmentation has been labelled as the major issue facing the growth and future success of mobile. The huge spectrum of diversities in mobile platforms and devices makes creating a single application for all mobile impossible. Some have begun a search for a potential unifying technology, dubbed the “magic bullet” by its sceptics. It is many of these sceptics who also stand by the idea that mobile fragmentation is a natural part of healthy competition and that it is part of mobiles growth and success.

However, the flipside to this argument takes an approach that suggests that in fact mobile fragmentation is not a bad thing. It is a natural part of a globally competitive and diverse market that reflects the desires and demand of its consumers. Mobile is one of the most impressive global markets when it comes to meeting consumer demand and diversity. Mr. Richard Wong attributes mobile fragmentation to this diversity. He points out that in India, one of the world’s leading and fastest developing mobile market’s, Nokia dominates the market share at 70 percent. In other key markets such as the U.S and Japan however, Nokia does not even feature in the top three.

In many ways mobile is already an indescribable success and Richard Wong suggests that rather than try and “solve” the fragmentation “problem,” instead companies are better off spending their time and money at the strategy drawing board. He states that rather than search for unifying technology, companies can consider whether they need a wide spreading market approach, or can they be efficient and successful by targeting a few thousand “profitable users.” Co-Founder of Symbian, Juha Christensen also supports mobile fragmentation and suggests that in the same way mobile is producing applications for all sorts of consumer needs, it is only a matter of time before mobile produces mobile devices for specific consumer types and demographics.

To a large extent mobile fragmentation is not a problem for the growth of mobile. It is indeed a challenge for some developers, but these developers may simply need to head to the drawing board and determine whether they want to reach as many customers as possible with their mobile strategy, or is it possible to be effective and aim to reach a few thousand profitable users? Mobile fragmentation is an inherent part of a globally diverse market, and it is this diversity that makes competition thrive and thus the market so successful. In which case, mobile fragmentation is most certainly not hurting the growth of mobile.

Looking to find the best deal on mobile marketing, then visit www.txt2get.com to find the best advice for you.

Advertising has come a great distance from the time when one had to sketch up presentations, pitch them to businesses, and then have the company physically get the information into the palms of prospective clients. These days, this same marketing data is sent directly into the hands of potential clients using their cellular phones. Mobile marketing is proving to be a successful tool for helping to brand one’s self and his or her products and services.

A mobile advertising network is an entity somewhat like a middle-man in wholesale marketing. These networks work by putting one’s company’s info in the hands of those with mobile devices. The network will pull together advertisements and text them out through the mobile phone network to the appropriately targeted audience base.

However, prior to starting, there are quite a few crucial points that one should comprehend. Budgets and target audiences are just a few of the very important considerations one must make when starting a mobile marketing campaign. There are six fantastic tips that should help any entrepreneur become a successful mobile marketer.

The first step to creating a profitable campaign is to plan a budget. One must know firsthand how much he or she has to put into a project. This can help decide how much cash is spent on which applicable items. Having a definite plan will help this campaign run more easily.

When one has determined a budget, he or she must not be afraid to spend it. Decide which type of platform one is going to use for the campaign, and then hire the type of company that specializes in that area. There are companies that can handle every aspect of a mobile campaign. Again, one’s budget will dictate what kind of marketing will benefit him or her the best.

Spend time defining the demographics of one’s targeted audience. Factors such as age, gender, and other things will dictate the set of individuals for whom the advertising campaign will work best. After one has established his or her campaign, it is always possible to expand afterward.

A targeted location is also crucial. If one can’t feasibly supply his or her services to someone on the other side of the planet, it is best to scale down and target just a local audience to start. This can be very significant when one considers the potential return on his or her investment.

Campaign tone is also an important part to cover. If targeting teens, slang terminology can be used to a slight degree; if targeting business professionals, it is best to stick to a more professional tone. The way in which the campaign is perceived has much to do with its success or failure.

Tracking achievements and failures is particularly critical. The amount of effort put into a campaign can be for naught if one does not maintain proper records. Only reinvest if the project is going well.

There are professional companies that can help with aspects of one’s campaign. There are even companies that can handle a complete project from start to finish. Having trust with the company that one chooses is of the utmost importance, as this company will be handling one’s brainchild.

For all the latest on mobile marketing be sure to check out Opt It

Making money by adopting the proper marketing plan can be a tough choice. The availability of numerous marketing strategy options further makes the choice complicated. Nonetheless an alternative that is growing fast is the text message marketing. Communicating with a sizable number of people via a cell phone can be very rewarding as every person has one. Companies that text messages to many persons are able to add to their sales by a higher conversion rate.

SMS is the acronym for Short Message Service that enables users to send and receive info through their mobile. This is a common feature in every mobile handset and is a very popular method to exchange information. An upgraded version of SMS is the MMS, Multimedia Messaging Services. Here users can send multimedia files like pictures, video clips or audios to other compatible handsets. This is still in its nascent stage but has a potential to become an effective marketing tool.

For businesses wanting to explore this advertising tool, there are 2 solutions available. The first option is the bulk messaging system that uses a database to text messages to a large number of users. The other option is to use short codes such messages to request information. For example, one may use ’send message to a certain number for additional information’.

Text based message advertising is cheaper than other advertising tools. With this tool, business owners can share info on promotions and offerings on their products to clients. Product owners can create an informational focal point that users are able to access only through a mobile phone. One other option available to business owners is to exchange information with customers only via a mobile phone.

Providing limited time period offers to clients only through these messages can help small businesses grow their business. Providing customers after sales service through this advertising will help clients recall the brand of the company. This helps companies bring in more repeat customers and new customers through word of mouth marketing.

To make new customers give your offerings a trial, companies can send coupon codes on their mobile phones. Sending one-time-only promotional coupons to customers is appealing to them and can also assist companies sell more. One may consider using other such innovative methods to woo customers to increase sales and profits.

For an event that a company hosts either in person or on the internet, using text marketing can be incredibly effective. This approach enables companies to provide up to last minute special offerings, updates and reminders to customers. Moreover the company can keep the excitement of the event alive through these messages sent out to a large number of individuals.

Offering clients the choice to choose the topics on which they would like to receive regular info is beneficial. Small company owners can send out detailed information to targeted clients and help increase their product sales. Text marketing is a method that offers owners an opportunity to grow quickly without spending a lot on marketing. SMS based advertising has made it possible for small and medium businesses to grow quickly and easily.

For the best rates in text message marketing or just to keep up with text marketing check out OptIt.com

People who choose to use their own mobile applications should have a vendor supply them with short codes. That said, there is a little more to the process than simply getting the short codes. A person with familiarity will be on hand to aid consumers with this process. They will be more than happy to offer advice on elements of mobile marketing.

A dedicated short code can be a powerful component to your mobile marketing campaign, but it can be a sizeable commitment in a financial sense. Therefore it is crucial to get the code that is right for your business. There are certain steps to be taken to make text message marketing as easy as possible.

People need to select a Mobile Application Service Provider (MASP) to work with. These service providers help clients with a platform to connect an aggregator so that text messages can be sent to the cell phone networks. At this stage the networks convey the messages to the subscribers. When working with a competent partner there is no need for third parties.

When approval of the application has been issued, then the code can be decided upon. It is important that the number has not been used yet and it is possible to acquire a vanity code. Sites exist, whereby people can create the code and to see if the code is in use yet.

The vanity kinds are more pricey than the random variety. Several companies lease these and it is quite a straightforward process. While anyone able to do this it is recommended that the MASP facilitate this process. Payment is due once the application has been approved.

The form that contains the service approval details is a very important part of the process. This document is also referred to as a program brief. All mobile carriers will receive this form and they are well within their rights to reject the application. This is why it is important to work with highly regarded MASPs. Respectable MASPs will make sure that all the necessary requirements are met.

It may take up to a month for the carriers to review an application and approve it. If the application is declined, the SAF will provide info to the client on how to revise the submission. The most common reason why applications are declined, is the fact that they do not adhere to the policy of the Mobile Marketing Association.

Once the submission has been approved, carriers will provision the short codes on the network for testing purposes. A compliant message and test keywords will be in place to make testing less complicated. The testing process typically lasts about two weeks, but some carriers may take up to six months to complete the testing stage. Once the testing process is finished, the short codes will be registered and certified on the different networks. Making use of a professional SAF will ensure that the process runs easily for the client.

Interested in learning more about short codes? Let OptIt be your short code guide.

Mobile marketing distinguishes itself from traditional forms of advertising not just because it interacts with people while they are on the move. The step towards location-based mobile advertising has built on this point of difference but it’s potential has certainly not been fully realised. 2011 will surely be the year where that starts to be remedied.

Location-based advertising is in short when advertisers factor a consumer’s location into the content they send them. This information can be obtained through a number of means but the most common way is through using apps such as Facebook Places that automatically update and share ones location online. Armed with this knowledge, advertisers can tweak content so that it will reflect a consumers present environment or alternatively, so that it is directed at people who are in areas where it will have the greatest impact.

It has been well established by research that consumers are much more likely to take advantage of promotions, be they sales, give-aways or other events, when they don’t have to travel very far. Obviously, the distance people are willing to travel correlates to the value of the promotion, but the simple fact for advertisers is that when they consumers are made aware of a promotion while they are in the area, then they are far more likely to respond. This is where the real strength of location-based advertising lies.

Not only does it make consumers more responsive, location based advertising can also be an invaluable tool in event promotion. Recently, the Red Bull Air Show made use of the location-based social networking service, Whrrl, to create a society that smart phone users could sign up for. Once they had joined, members would gain access to exclusive benefits, ticket offers and event information that added significantly to the experience had by air race attendees.

Looking to the future, the possibilities for location-based advertising are only going to grow. As more and more people sign up to Facebook places as well as other location-based apps, the opportunities for advertisers are ever expanding. As the pool of consumers they can tap into grows, so to will the impact that location based advertising have upon the mobile marketing industry.

Want to find out more about Mobile Marketing, then visit www.txt2get.com on how to choose the best solution for your needs.