ROK has got to be one of the most tireless supporters of mobile TV out there. The company is a developer of entertainment applications, services and technology for mobile – but its primary driver is its TV services. Today it has announced the launch of a new product called Ideas Web TV, a streaming, on-demand mobile TV service with Columbia’s largest mobile network, Comcel.

What’s the story?

There have been some mobile TV services we’ve seen that have been little more than glorified “clips” repositories – these are usually free, ad-supported services. What ROK has launched here with Comcel is a different story. First of all, it ain’t free. Users have to pay the local equivalent of $8.25 per month to access it. Once you’ve paid the subscription fee, you can download the Ideas Web TV app, through which you access the TV content. To begin with, you can access shows from Discovery Movil, Discovery Kids, Nickelodeon, Playboy Lifestyle, ESPN, ESPN-X, Wappo TV, Disney Channel and National Geographic – with plans to add more channels in the future.

The actual streaming service here is powered by ROKs television service, ROK TV. And just because you have to download an app, don’t think this is a “smartphone only” deal. Part of the strength of the ROK TV service is that it will run on a huge number of mobile devices with a decent screen – almost 300 models are currently supported.

What we think?

This is one of a number of mobile TV launches in recent months that have come from operators or big brands. E! Entertainment and Buongiorno!Digital UK launched a mobile service in UK, France, Italy and Germany in May. In April, a massive conglomeration of American TV studios announced a future mobile service, and 3 Italia launched an on-demand service earlier this month. As recent reports suggest that 80% of young UK residents want mobile TV, it seems it’s only a matter of time at this point.

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Tech consultancy Frost & Sullivan has predicted that by 2015, about 477 million smartphones will be sold in Asia, giving them 54% of the Asian mobile phone market. This marks a sharp increase from the 9% of the market that smartphones commanded in 2009.

What is worth noting is that this growth is not simply a product of developed Asian countries like Korea, Japan, and Taiwan—much of it is coming from strong growth of smartphone sales in developing countries India, China, and Indonesia, with growth in mobile social networks driving the demand for more capable phones.

The growing success of smartphones and the mobile data plans they require are presented as good news for carriers that are desperate to increase their ARPU numbers, but in reality the proliferation of data-hungry devices on a mobile network is a double-edged sword as the burden of mushrooming data usage can bring the network to its knees (just ask AT&T).

The Frost & Sullivan report also outlines some peculiar challenges facing the Asian smartphone market: first, that Asia has a relative dearth of public wi-fi hotspots, and second, that Asian markets are much more heavily skewed towards prepaid subscribers, which make the traditional smartphone sales practice of masking high costs through smartphone subsidies an impossibility.

What we think:

This is the sort of research piece that makes an interesting point (if it pans out to be accurate), but leaves the reader to wonder just what this means for them. Here’s what we think:

The fact that prepaid smartphones cannot be subsidized as in other countries will create an enormous incentive to develop low-cost smartphones. Some companies are already adapting to this trend, such as Samsung, whose Galaxy 5 Android handset is priced at INR 9000 (~€150) unsubsidized and unlocked. The stampede of new Indian handset makers churning out new handsets at a prodigious rate should drive this price even lower. Other companies, of course, are not adapting to this low-cost trend at all (guess which!)

Another fact often brought up is that the line between smarphones and dumb-phones (“feature phones”) continues to blur as low-end phones grow more capable with cameras, email and PIM functionality, and even apps. While the opportunity for smartphones is huge and growing, the opportunity for exciting innovations on the 47% of the phone market that is feature phones is still a very large market, ripe for innovation, and perhaps less overflowing with competition.

Also worth considering is that the convergence of smart- and dumb-phone , this will not be the case as much in India as it may be elsewhere, as there will for the foreseeable future remain demand for phones that are simple and ultra-low cost for India’s massive rural market.

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University of Colarado (UC) has taken a novel approach to one of its administrative problems. The Norlin Library, referred to as the “flagship of the University Libraries“, can be confusing for some students to learn how to best make use of. To make the library more user-friendly, UC decided to place Microsoft Tag mobile barcodes on posters around the building, as a guide to new users.

Microsoft Tag?

Tag is the name of a proprietary type of mobile barcode that Microsoft created. Like other 2d barcodes, you can scan it with your mobile device – if you’ve got a cameraphone with the proper software. Once you’ve scanned the Tag, your phone will link to whatever content it contained. This could be a web URL, an image, or an automated SMS.
Tag barcodes have been popular with many magazine publishers because their bright colours make them noticeable and more visually interesting:

What’s the story?

UC has placed posters at key locations around the Norlin Library. The posters have five different Tags on it, each of which leads to a mobile web page containing answers to the most commonly asked questions about Norlin Library. The post also has all the details students will need to download the Tag reader and install it on their device.

Read more: http://www.coloradodaily.com/ci_15894064#ixzz0xo5CD9zn

What we think?

It seems bizarre that something as simple as bright colours would make such a difference to a barcode. Microsoft itself has claimed that the popularity of the Tags is to do with its analytics engine, but UC isn’t going need to do much in-depth marketing analysis of how students are interacting with the barcodes. The visual differences between Tags and your normal black’n’white barcodes can’t be underestimated as a differentiator. In some instances, color tags are less effective than black and white – they’re harder to read in low light environments, for example.

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It’s becoming more obvious over time that luxury goods have found a good home on mobile. While the mobile advertising industry in general is enjoying huge growth at the moment, more expensive items have been sold through the medium for much longer. In particular, between today and yesterday, three developments have proven the success of selling cars and houses on mobile. Why does it work so well?

What’s the news?

The last day has seen a short burst of news about how mobiles can be used to shift luxury goods:

Car dealers use mobile chat for marketing – Cars.com launched in 1998, and has been a popular on-line marketplace for dealers and buyers to meet over the last 12 years. One of the more popular features is an on-line chat service that allows dealers to interact with prospective customers remotely. Yesterday, Cars.com announced that the chat service has been ported over to mobile, to allow mobile-to-mobile chat between dealers and customers. Michael Page, VP of advertising products for Cars.com says “mobile chat allows salespeople to be more responsive to shoppers’ inquiries, even if they’ve stepped away from their desk… dealers can use this capability to enhance their customer service and sell more cars.”

Real Estate agents using mobile advertising – the Real Estate Journal yesterday published an article about a mobile marketing service for retailers called 90210USA.com. On top of singing the praises of the service, it also mentioned that the real estate industry is already “saturated by mobile marketing”

Lexus launches iPad app – As reported on New Media Age today, Lexus has launched an iPad application that allows visitors at a trade show to book test drives, and request additional brochures and information about car models.

What we think?

The announcements by Cars.com and Lexus aren’t the earliest examples of mobile advertising for cars by a long shot. Car manufacturers from Maserati, BMW, Ford, Volkswagen and Volvo have been at this for years. And real estate agents have been using their mobiles to sell homes for as long as mobile devices have existed – through voice calls at first, and more increasingly through location-aware apps, barcodes and advertising. Why are houses and cars so easy a fit for mobile?

1) Houses and cars are expensive – buying a new car or home is, in almost every case, going to require the customer to seek financing. There are loans to consider. It’s a long term investment. People will naturally be skittish about spending that much money. Mobiles allow the salespeople to stay in much closer, more personal contact with the prospective client. It allows them to effectively hold their hands during the purchase.

2) Mobiles allow you freedom to move – as Michael Page said above, having a mobile allows the seller to be much more useful to their client from any location. Instead of just taking a call and saying “I can check that for you when I get back to the office”, the salesperson can now have an entire suit of applications and information at hand through their phone. Smartphones have enormous connectivity. When you step away from your desk, you can take all of your connections with you. You can access your email, voice, messages, IM, Skype (or other VoIP) and SMS from your pocket.

3) Luxury goods buyers are more likely to have smartphones – if you’re selling a nice new house or a luxury car, the chances are your customer will have a smartphone. The capabilities of the device in their pocket don’t just make them easier to stay in contact with, it also makes them much more responsive to mobile advertising. Not making a move into that marketing channel is a pretty silly thing to do.

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Here’s the hottest news from the mobile marketing and advertising world, in the GoMo News round-up. Target is pushing it’s new ad-format out on mobile; global business services provider SAS is power SMS campaigns; and more…

New Target digital ad technology is mobile-integrated

US retail chain Target has announced a new customisable ad format for customers. The MyTarget Weekly ads will deliver information on new deals in-store, along with coupons and other promotion material. But the consumer gets to input their own options as to what kind of goods and products they get advertised.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100826006128/en/Target-Unveils-Customized-Ad-Technology-Shopping-Easier

Tremor Media moves into mobile video advertising

Tremor Media is an on-line video advertising company, which has just announced a shift over to the emerging HTML5 standard. As part of that new capability, the company is launching video-ads formatted for iPhone, Android and other mobile platforms.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100826005368/en/Tremor-Media-Deliver-Advanced-Video-Advertising-Formats

Mobile marketer Multimedia Solutions launches its own mobile website

Multimedia Solutions works with MMS, mobile websites and widets/apps. It has just announced a new website – along with its own first mobile website. Just goes to show that mobile advertising isn’t always the best way to promote mobile advertising.

http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/78/51511.html

Air2Web Partners with SAS to Provide New Level of Mobile Marketing and CRM

SAS is possibly the biggest provider of business analytics and services in the world. It has just announced a partnership with mobile customer interaction provider Air2Web – SAS will provide its analytics service to make Air2Webs MMS campaigns more targetted.

http://call-center-services.tmcnet.com/topics/call-center-services/articles/97502-air2web-partners-with-sas-provide-new-level-mobile.htm

Nobot teams up with BuzzCity

Mobile entertainment and advertising company BuzzCity has announced a deal with NOBOT, a company that delivers ads specifically into mobile applications. The deal will see ads from BuzzCity being served to developers on the NOBOT network.

http://pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=470702&Itemid=29

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