Archive for the ‘Rohit Dadwal’ Tag

Go to any shopping centre these days and you can see how mobile devices have become an essential part of the retail experience. Mobile technology has changed the way consumers make purchase decisions. Savvy consumers are more likely to use mobile devices rather than PCs as their shopping tools. They have discovered a range of functions in their mobile devices that can help them, from access to product information to mobile coupons and social shopping. Feature-rich mobile apps can also make shopping more fun, interactive and convenient.

As the use of mobile devices continues to grow in the near future, mobile devices will create more and better connections between consumers and brands. This reflects the already positive consumer response to mobile marketing, a trend that will definitely continue in the future.

Mobile devices are no longer merely an access point for online shopping. According to Accenture, 73 per cent of consumers are likely to use mobile apps as their personal shopping assistants when they go to retail stores instead of interacting with sales staff. More and more, the mobile device is becoming a fully integrated part of the shopping experience.

The individual consumer’s purchase decision journey has been profoundly changed. Consumers put more thought into their purchases, and are more active in evaluating product choices by gathering product information and reading reviews. The immediate access to information Is crucial, and one that can be enhanced through the mobile channel.

More importantly, mobile devices present the opportunity for consumers to interact with the brand and further process their purchase decision immediately. Even when they are in-store, at the point of purchase, consumers are likely to compare the specific available products, evaluate prices, and try to understand the value and benefits of these products using their mobile devices before making a purchase.

Given this changing consumer behaviour, there is an opportunity for mobile marketing to take place in the retail environment itself, a reflection of the growing importance of mobile marketing in a dynamic market. Marketer’s can take the opportunity to generate a sense of immediacy along with a convenient shopping experience, which is what consumers look for. In-store mobile marketing represents the best integration of digital technology and the authentic store experience.

Marketers can create touch points to facilitate the consumer purchase journey. Mobile marketing can enhance the retail experience, incorporating essentials such as product and price information, customer service, product sharing, personalized customer data, barcode scanning, location-based services, and payments. For instance, consumers are likely to search for the nearest locations of the specific brand, use mobile barcodes to gather more information about the products and enjoy mobile coupons that can be redeemed in the store immediately. All of the features of the mobile channel can be used to improve the shopping experience and enhance customer value.

The challenge for marketers is to not only develop strategic approaches but also come up with creative solutions. The integration of strategic and creative approaches will effectively create more appealing content that will resonate with the brand in the market. Mobile marketing can also create a high level shopping experience by integrating compelling digital content and in-store experience. It is easy to deliver rich media content over mobile devices, building on in-store displays and providing additional information. This can play an important role in engaging consumers with the brand. Consumers are looking for credible and trusted information covering all needed categories, along with interactive visualization, which enables them to interact with the brands at higher emotional levels. Branded mobile applications, too, have transformed shopping, and social media can lift shopping into a social interaction.

These methods can all enhance the shopping experience for mobile users, enriching their time on the shop floor, and making shopping more convenient and fun. Pairing shopping experiences with mobile devices can also effectively increase the level of immediate sales conversion, which enables the business to further build the brand value and achieve the goals in the future. The opportunities are great, and consumers have already shown their willingness to use their devices to add to their own shopping. It is time for mobile marketers to join the party.

The news coming out of Indonesia in recent times has been troubling.

First there was the report in the Jakarta Post that scammers were cheating people out of their mobile credits, tricking them into signing up for premium services which are difficult to unsubscribe to, and then slowly leeching their precious prepaid credits.

Then later the Jakarta Globe carried a report that research showed that Indonesia was one of the world’s worst spammers – not very bad in itself, but a sign, perhaps, that spammers were using Indonesia as the location from which to send spam out en masse.

Most recently, there have been reports that workers at Telkomsel, one of Indonesia’s major carriers, are striking for better benefits. This strike (which was meant to last a month) has been called off, but unhappiness is still rife and there may be more industrial actions to come.

This is not the best news for the telecommunications industry in Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy. It is particularly unsettling because in so many ways, Indonesia’s mobile space shows great promise and potential.

A recent report from Google, for example, points out that internet use is rapidly overtaking television as the Indonesians’ media channel of choice, a change largely attributed to the availability and high take-up rate of low-cost smartphones. It was only at the end of October when Reportlinker released research that predicted that the mobile market in Indonesia is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.5% in terms of revenues from 2008 to 2014. Indonesia continues to lead the world in the use of Facebook, with around 45 million users, again attributable to mobile- or mobile-based web use of the service. (India is rapidly catching up, though, with 30 million users.)

Hopefully these are all just growing pains, as Indonesia’s economy continues to grow at an astounding rate. Part of the reason for the industrial action, after all, was the perceived success of Telkomsel, whose star is seen to be rising in the wake of the population’s massive take-up of mobile phones. If the company is doing so well, the logic seems to go that their workers should get some of the benefits, and in fact one of the benefits being asked for was that each worker should get a cellular phone.

The fourth-most populous nation in the world, with a population of 240 million, Indonesia may be Southeast Asia’s sleeping giant, the largest powerhouse economy in Southeast Asia, with untapped resources that could lead to even greater growth. Recently, Indonesia has really come a long way, riding the crest of the new Asian growth spurt. This growing affluence is making itself felt in the mobile space, too, as Indonesia’s mobile penetration rates skyrocketed in the last few years. It seems that these latest troubles are just the signs of Indonesia’s awakening, as its population faces cybercrime as a result of a substantial number of people being online for the first time in their lives.

Hopefully these are only bumps in the road, minor pratfalls as Indonesia makes its way forward. In the mobile marketing space, Indonesia continues to be the hotspot where so many interesting, original and creative campaigns emerge, and its population is uniquely open to the mobile channel. With any luck, cooler heads will prevail, and Indonesia will continue to rise, getting better and better as it finds its feet and joins the world as yet another economic superpower.

InMobi’s securing of $200 million of funding from SoftBank is a portent of much future growth for the mobile marketing and advertising industry.

The investment is a landmark event for the mobile advertising and marketing industry, clearly establishing mobile as mainstream. It is particularly telling that investors have this level of confidence, not only in the industry as a whole, but also in an Asian company, one that has leveraged the power of global interest in mobile advertising to carve a niche for itself among major players in the industry.

The news is most welcome, as it establishes an Indian start-up in the mobile marketing space as a true global leader. InMobi has transformed into a multinational organization within a very short period of time, becoming a powerful player in the global mobile space. This is a reflection of the business acumen, innovation and creativity behind the company – and speaks volumes for the results that its operations in the mobile space have been able to achieve.

In addition, the collaboration with and interest from a leading investment house such as SoftBank clearly indicates the growth potential inherent in mobile as the next media. SoftBank’s investment also merges the boundaries within Asia, as this investment house from Japan, one of the world’s most developed mobile markets, partners with InMobi, a company that has spread its business from India, across both developed and developing markets. This will be a strong partnership indeed.

Hopefully, this announcement will act as a catalyst for change for traditional marketers and agencies. It will bring mobile to the forefront of marketing plans, used in conjunction with and perhaps even in place of traditional media channels in order to achieve marketing objectives. I have mentioned the power and potential of mobile before, particularly in Asia, and SoftBank’s willingness to capitalise on it is the truest testimony to that future growth.

The investment, one of the largest to date in the mobile internet space , will help InMobi create value across the mobile ecosystem globally through world-class advertising, mobile payments using SmartPay™, and HTML5 rich media production and distribution using the recently acquired Sprout™ platform.

In addition, this partnership will provide SoftBank and InMobi with opportunities to further explore global scale collaboration in the fast growing mobile ad market. Given the significant number of prominent Asian Internet companies in SoftBank’s investment portfolio, it is not unreasonable to expect to see further synergies emerge from the SoftBank/InMobi partnership.

MMA is really proud to have InMobi as our Premium Member, helping build and guide the industry. Things are looking up, and this recently-announced partnership is likely to be the first in a great many as mobile really starts to hit its stride, and exert its influence on the world stage.

As we approach the end of the year, it is awards season once more. 4A’s has just given out the Singapore Media Awards, the Festival of Media and Spikes Asia are both upcoming as I write this, and of course, nominations are now open for the global Mobile Marketing Association awards. This is actually a bit of a change from last year, as more of our industry awards include categories for digital and mobile campaigns. This development reflects the growing importance and awareness of non-traditional marketing.

I’ve said it before – awards are important. In a world obsessed with measurement and ROI, awards represent a way to consider something intangible. Sometimes, there isn’t a way to measure the factors that truly make a difference in marketing and advertising campaigns, and that is where awards can make the difference.

There is a certain amount of glitz and glamour associated with the awards ceremony itself, of course, and it gives everyone a chance to dress up and feel just a little bit special for one night. Winning an award brings with it a certain amount of prestige and industry recognition, too, something that can carry on after the awards night and help with procuring new business.

The more important function fulfilled by awards is that they unify the industry. Awards let each and every company within the industry to put their best foot forward, to showcase their very best work, and to hold it up for comparison with the best work that other companies have put forward. A panel of judges made up of industry peers ensures that the right comparisons are made. Industry awards judge work based on criteria other than the every day, not just in terms of ROI or conversion rate, but for how creative and innovative these campaigns are.

Creativity and innovation are traits that cannot be easily measured, and can only be seen by comparison with the other work done during the year. Side by side comparisons demonstrate conclusively which are the most creative, most original, and most special successful campaigns of the year.

Awards are also a good chance to see what one’s peers have been getting up to – and perhaps can provide inspiration for work in the year to come. Award winners often win because they have tried something different. Just knowing that some new technique is possible or some different practice attracts positive results can open up new possibilities. Learning from one another is perhaps the best, non-competitive way to benefit from awards, although winning is always better.

Amazon’s latest ebook reader is the talk of the town – not because of any new or superlative hardware features, but because the Kindle Cloud Reader replicates many of the functions of its standalone brother in the form of a HTML5 web app. The web app functions as a browser-based ebook reader, letting users access their Amazon accounts, download and read their ebooks.

The hot topic of tech industry conversations these days is HTML5. While HTML5 is far from being a fully-adopted standard, it holds great promise: to deliver rich content across any platform or device, and to convert any website into a fully-functioning web app. This ability is revolutionary, marrying the utility of an app with the ease of access of the web. This will particularly alter the mobile experience, since it extends the utility of mobile browsers, without the need to purchase additional apps.

Moving app-level functionality to the web browser may turn out to be HTML5’s most disruptive trait. Web apps like Amazon’s Kindle Cloud Reader challenge the app store economy pioneered by Apple, but that has now been adopted by Google in their Android Market (and by others). Prior to this, Apple imposed an across the board 30% fee for all purchases made through apps, adding to the cost of making content available to iOS users, and leading many other ebook providers (like Kobo) as well as magazine and newspaper publishers to cripple their apps, by removing purchasing functionality from their apps. This is somewhat ironic, given that Apple’s abandoning of Adobe Flash (in favour of HTML5) may be one of the reasons for HTML5’s rise.

HTML5 is nothing more than the latest version of Hypertext Markup Language, the basic grammar for laying out web pages so that they can be rendered by web browsers. A substantial update on the current standards, HTML5 will supercede not only the current version of HTML (HTML4) but also XHTML1 and DOM2HTML. HTML5 has been designed to be robust and powerful, providing built-in support for multimedia and rich content but remaining easily readable by human beings and consistently understood and interpreted across platforms.

The adoption of HTML5 will have major repercussions for the mobile web and application ecosystem. For a start, HTML5 will let users access a wide range of rich multimedia content without having to worry about compatibility issues. HTML5 also promises to bring more content to mobile browsers, changing the truncated mobile browsing experience into one that more closely resembles desktop browsing. This will be a particularly useful feature for users in Asia, many of whom use mobile browsing as their primary means of accessing the Internet. And as discussed earlier, HTML5 will reduce the influence of companies like Apple and Google, which take up to 30 percent of all revenues generated from applications.

Although HTML5 will become completely W3C compliant in 2022 (a feat that no other version of HTML has achieved), it is already a firm enough standard that Amazon is using it for a cloud-based ebook app. Mobile marketers, advertisers, brands and agencies are all watching HTML5 developments with great interest, because of the wide range of benefits that HTML5 may bring. Easier distribution of rich media content, for a start, as well as online gaming without the need for web app design, and a level of multimedia/animated content that eliminates the need for Silverlight or Flash implementations, plus being OS- and device-agnostic means that marketers using HTML5 have a wide range of options, and need only build once to achieve almost universal distribution.

Whether that comes to pass remains to be seen, as the renewed interest in HTML5 puts the standard under even greater scrutiny. Paradoxically, widespread adoption of HTML5 will only happen when it becomes used more widely, so it is a bit of a chicken and egg situation. Amazon’s big move may be the start of an avalanche, as users/consumers start to use and demand HTML5 functionality. The next few months should be very interesting, and if all goes well, you may be reading this blog’s entries in an all new HTML5 format – together with almost everything else on the web.

Today, we see the emergence of new and specialised mobile ad networks, in addition to several large ad networks that already serve more mainstream advertising solutions. As opposed to hosting the typical banner and text advertisements, these small networks offer innovative options such as video ads, voice ads, 3D ads, location-based services, augmented reality, Bluetooth technologies, and much more. Contrast this with large ad networks such as InMobi, Google AdMob, and Millennial Media that primarily serve banner and text advertisements, in addition to add-on features such as click-to-call, click-to-download, in-app sponsorships, etc.

While it is true that large networks enjoy a wider reach, their success is not necessarily a given.

One of the issues with being a large network is that it is difficult and challenging to introduce radical innovations to their system. Instead, it is easier to build on existing technologies (e.g. banner advertisements) with occasional incremental additions (e.g. inserting a click-to-call feature above the banner advertisement).

On the other hand, small networks are able to create new advertising solutions that attract more brands and agencies to integrate mobile as a medium into their marketing strategies, such as 3D ads that offer users a 360-degree view of products; augmented reality technologies that engage users in unprecedented ways; and location-based services that provide users coupon savings while driving foot traffic to retail stores. For them, innovation is important for their survival, rather than having a wide user base.

While innovation is a key driver of mobile advertising growth, some caution needs to be taken. An industry with too many specialisations may eventually be self-defeating for the players, because competition becomes stiffer and profit margins narrower.

In response to this situation, such diversity in the industry is instead more likely to lead to the establishment of partnerships between small and large networks, where they benefit from each other’s extensive user base and innovation. Also, if large networks cannot keep pace with the trends in the industry because they lack the research and development capacity, they are likely to seek innovation from third-party networks.

For example, we already see partnerships between Microsoft and Vdopia, and InMobi and Cooliris. Vdopia and Cooliris supply the bigger players their structures for video and 3D ads respectively. In the future, mergers and acquisitions may be more commonplace as large networks take steps to acquire the technological innovations of smaller ad networks.

This trend is likely to continue, eventually leading to consolidation within the mobile ad network industry, similar to the consolidation among online ad networks in the last 10 years. From the hundreds of ad networks that first emerged in the early 2000s, today the top five online networks rake in a whopping 67.7% of the total online ad revenues in the US: Google (40.8%), Yahoo! (11%), Facebook (7%), MSN (6.1%), and AOL (2.7%).

I predict that the mobile ad network industry will follow a similar trajectory, and eventually consolidate into several large joint networks that are capable of giving the various user experiences for mobile advertising. These can run the gamut from mainstream banner ads to specialised augmented reality, video ads, and location-based services. Hopefully, the consolidation will also translate into higher adoption of mobile ads, and better tracking and measurement tools as the industry matures.

Throughout the changes that we can expect to see within the industry, I am confident that innovation will continue to flourish. It is not inconceivable that one day, the most powerful mobile ad network will be able to combine all these technologies skillfully and seamlessly. And perhaps, this network is still out there waiting to be born.

Google recently reported that mobile ad revenue in Asia Pacific would hit $6.9 billion in 2015. While there is no doubt that market expansion will contribute to this growth, innovation is the key driver to ensuring sustainable mobile advertising growth, even after infant markets become saturated. There are two parts to this driver: technological innovations, and new big ideas that provide value to consumers.

Technological innovations
In order to encourage more brands to choose mobile as an advertising medium, agencies and developers must demonstrate that new technological innovations are capable of engaging and converting users in unprecedented and effective ways.

For instance, agencies could capitalise on augmented reality (AR) technologies, by combining them with either entertainment or utility to create new user experiences. In a campaign for Hennessy, Cherrypicks Ltd created an app that combined location-enabled technology with AR, resulting in an app that gave a sensational user experience. By pointing the smartphone to the “Hennessy Artistry” coaster or Hennessy V.S.O.P bottle label, the Hennessy Viewer app showed animations of drinks being prepared. Users could also collect and upload stamps to the “My Hennessy” score chart to win great prizes. (Click here to watch the video).

Innovations in location-based services will also be attractive to end users and advertisers because of the utilities they offer. Dentsu Inc came up with iButterfly, a savvy location-based technology that is combined with a gaming element. At different locations, users must swish their iPhone to catch various virtual “butterflies”, which are actually coupons that may be redeemed at nearby retailers. For some retailers such as Adidas, more butterflies translate into higher discounts for shoes. Butterflies also vary in design according to locations, and users may trade with their friends. (Click here to watch the video.)

Harnessing creativity
Acquiring technological innovations is only half the equation – the other half being creativity, or the big ideas. The use of mobile apps will become more pervasive if they create value for users through utility or entertainment. Here, the technology is not as important as how it is being used.

In a campaign to promote mobile internet, TurkCell the leading telecommunications provider in Turkey launched a creative campaign revolving around Twitter. Using a live video feed they showed boxes filled with smartphones to be given away. Each box had layers of post-its pasted on top. To join the game, players had to tweet the messages written on the post-its, for the box to be unveiled. As a result, #turkcelltweets quickly trended for a week, and TurkCell’s messages were spread among 3.6 million users. This campaign is a great example of how a big idea was introduced to a ubiquitous platform.

Combining technological innovation with big ideas
Ideally, the way forward in growing the mobile advertising industry is to combine technological innovations with big ideas. Not only does this lead to effective ads with high returns on investment (ROI), it also leads to an exciting era of novel user experiences and groundbreaking connections between businesses and consumers.

Last week, the Mobile Marketing Association had the honour of hosting the Mobile Value Added Services (VAS) Strategy tracks on day two and three of CommunicAsia 2011 – the 22nd International Communications and Information Technology Exhibition & Conference. Asia’s largest knowledge based ICT platform, CommunicAsia brings together buyers and sellers to display and discuss the newest technology innovations and latest industry updates from the ICT industry.

The Mobile VAS Strategy tracks at this year’s event facilitated discussions on trends and business models in mobile marketing & advertising, mobile TV, internet and apps, with a focus on Asia Pacific developments and opportunities. The tracks saw participation from industry giants as well as newcomers including Nokia, Velti, Zynga, Telibrahma Convergent Communications Pvt Ltd, Google, Smaato, Out There Media, Blyk, Microsoft Asia, ShowNearby Pte Ltd, Gfk Group, i-POP, Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, Web Spiders, CommScope, Dell, RIM Asia, StarHub Ltd, InMobi, BuzzCity, among others.

Discussions ranged from engaging mobile users through mobile and social media to revenue optimization for app developers to m-Commerce. While all of the sessions were both enlightening and engaging, here are my top 10 learnings from the two-day track:

1. Mobile Web and Apps are both equally important from a brands perspective – Web is still the lowest common denominator.
2. Location is key to driving conversion.
3. Consumers are used to navigating across services like augmented reality, bluetooth, Web and apps in a seamless manner.
4. It is no longer about Smartphones as the driver – Feature phones today were the smartphone of yesterday.
5. The benefits of advertising on mobile are clear but the best results will be seen by those who focus on using the medium strategically as opposed to just focusing on flash in the pan tactics.
6. Connectivity will soon be the least of consumer worries – The real challenge will be generating content at the same speed.
7. The mobile advertising future predicted by marketers over the last few years is “NOW” & is overtaking the “traditional digital.”
8. Consumers need end-to-end services that not only engage but also help the execute their needs – till the last mile – “conversion”
9. Advertising on mobile will set up a parallel world of retail therapy – Impulsive and cashless.
10. One thing that will fast track the growth of the industry is measurement, metrics and analysis. Every growing industry needs them.

We live in a world of plenty. Information and products are available anywhere, anytime at the click of a button. This abundance has brought about a key change in the marketplace: a smarter, more aware and discerning consumer set. With the number of choices available within each product/service category, the success of a business no longer depends solely on a superior feature set or whether the product is bigger and better. Brand distinction has now become a relationship building exercise and innovative marketing is the tool employed by businesses to cultivate and nurture these relationships.

The current marketplace is all about the consumer. The most successful campaigns come from studying your consumer set, getting to know them, personalising your message to suit their needs and finally reaching out to them via a medium that is most accessible and relevant to them. The power has undoubtedly shifted from the producer to the consumer, making consumer centric engagement the key to a successful marketing campaign and, ultimately, a successful business.

Themed “Consumers Are Mobile, Are You?,” this year’s Mobile Marketing Association Forum Singapore will provide a platform for international brands and agencies to address the crucial need to put consumers first when it comes to delivering value through their mobile integrated campaigns. As the consumer takes centre stage in the world of mobile marketing, successful mobile campaigns will depend on the marketers’ understanding of the relevance of consumer centric engagement and the value it delivers. Here’s a small peek into four essential steps to ensuring a successful consumer engagement strategy:

Insight
Like all relationships in life, a successful relationship with your consumers is dependent on how well you know them. It is important to educate yourself on where your consumers are from, what they do, what their habits are, what their likes and dislikes are and what some of their defining traits as consumers are. Target audience research and analysis is what makes your marketing campaign the finely tuned engagement tool you need it to be. The focus is no longer on whether your product is best in its category. It’s about focusing on consumer individuality to figure out how your product is the best fit for them. Listen to your consumer and observe their behaviour to successfully map out both your messaging as well as marketing mix.

Engagement
Two-way communication is key to nurturing any relationship. Brands can no longer just yell out from a billboard or a 30 second spot on TV to grab the consumer’s attention. In the world of consumer control, interactive marketing is what will get them interested. Integrating mobile and social media into the traditional marketing mix has allowed brands to converse with their audience. Marketing monologues have been converted to dialogues as marketers work on ways to befriend consumers by allowing for feedback and becoming involved with their decision making process.

Personalisation & Privacy
Personalisation offers both better consumer experience and better delivery of relevant information to consumers. Successful brands seed their way into their consumers’ lives and build trust to become an essential part of their lives.

Privacy is a topic that I’ve discussed at length in my previous articles. As marketers personalise messages, it is essential to remember that the consumer still has rights. A message may be relevant but that doesn’t guarantee the consumers’ desire to receive and act on it. Permission marketing is the way to counter the consumer mistrust currently plaguing some markets.

The Efficient Market Place
Purchase decisions are no longer as simple as going to a shop and asking for something that meets your current need. Consumers have a plethora of choices in each product category and can access information on the go to educate themselves about available options. All they require from their suppliers is a good deal on their shortlisted selections. The proliferation of choices, however, can also be quite overwhelming for the consumers. Marketing is not about awareness or share of voice any more. It’s about connecting with your consumers and helping make their purchase decisions an easier task. Employing a consumer centric approach is the key to an efficient business model.

To download the MMA Forum brochure, access the full agenda and find out about registration, go to http://www.mobilemarketingforum.com/singapore2011.

Data protection and privacy are in the spotlight once again, thanks to the recent announcement that the Singapore government is planning to implement data protection laws. This legislature will curb excessive and unnecessary collection of individuals’ personal data by businesses, and will include requirements such as obtaining the consent of individuals to disclose their personal information. Set to go into effect early in 2012, these laws could not come at a better time, because concerns over privacy, identity theft, and the improper use of consumers’ personal data continue to rise.

As government agencies and corporate entities alike realise the value of consumers’ personal data, it seems more and more common for such data to be misused, go missing, or leak into the wrong hands. The United Kingdom’s Identity and Passport Service (IPS) is the latest such culprit, having lost the personal data of both applicants and their counter-signatories for 21 applications in May 2010. This breach of the Data Protection Act was reported by the Information Commissioner’s Office in early February 2011. The IPS has signed an undertaking to improve procedures, including staff training and data storage policies, as well as regular audits and inspections.

What we are seeing is a governmental response to citizen concerns about their data. The time is ripe for a new regulatory environment. Governments all over the world are beginning to recognise their responsibility to protect the information given to them in the course of regular civil bureaucracy. It is only a matter of time before they extend that same level of protection to the private sector, and hold private enterprise to the same levels of confidentiality and privacy.

This is naturally of great relevance to the mobile industry. Because mobile devices are so personal, and so ubiquitous, more and more services are evolving around delivery of information (maps, for example, or restaurant reviews) as well as transactions, whether financial or otherwise. It is only with a high level of trust that the mobile industry can continue to develop. People need to be confident that they can share their information without fear, since it is this information which will ultimately be used to deliver the content that they want. For example, having a service that delivers location-specific information requires that users specifically allow access to information about where they are.

This level of trust or consent is required before companies can proceed to offer advanced services. Alcatel-Lucent has had great success with permission-based marketing that delivers electronic coupons, special offers and marketing material to mobile phone users who have opted-in and shared their preferences. Blyk also uses permission-based marketing, and connects young people to the events, celebrities, and brands of their choice.

Data protection and privacy will continue to be important issues, and it’s heartening that governments and other regulatory bodies are working together. Only when individuals are able to choose where and when and how to share their data, with the confidence that that data will be treated with respect, and securely protected, can we take full advantage of the internet, and fulfill the promise and potential of the mobile space.