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If you want a glimpse of a wildly promising mobile future, grab some geek buddy's T-Mobile G1 phone and fire up the ShopSaavvy app. Integrated with the phone's camera, you can aim the device at any product UPC code and pull down product details, online pricing and shopping opportunities, Web...
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From the time I started this column several years ago, one of my persistent laments of the mobile industry has been that tech companies are not by their nature and culture media companies. It never was in their DNA to think of themselves as content platforms that need to market and merchandise media...
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"Who are you calling?" my fiancée asks. "A dating service, I think. The SMS ad told me I could 'talk to my next date.'" She is not amused. Note to self: when you buy an engagement ring, consider the pain it might inflict when driven into your rib cage. "Ow! I am...
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At our "iPhoning It In" panel during the recent OMMA Mobile conference, Jason Spero, vice president of marketing for mobile ad network AdMob, stridently declared that developers and brands did not need prominent iPhone App Store placement to make their content discoverable. Ads running on other...
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I have been playing around lately with the limited number of consumer brand applications in the iPhone App store. The result so far are mixed. As I mentioned last time, we started talking about the proper form and goal of a branded app at OMMA Mobile, but the answers are not clear-cut. Marketers meet...
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A number of themes and issues from last week's OMMA Mobile show in Los Angeles will reverberate in these columns over the next few weeks, I am sure. But for now one keeps rattling around my head: the marketing effectiveness and purpose of the branded app.
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As this column hits your mailbox, OMMA Mobile should be in full swing in L.A. Nielsen's Nic Covey will be kicking off today's show with some recent and fascinating research into mobile habits and ad responsiveness. While I will be curious to see how Nic interprets some of these points today,...
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When I think about all the trouble mobile gaming has had getting traction with U.S. customers, I wonder why developers aren't trolling the exploding world of online casual games for innovative ideas like "Pain," the game whose pleasures are as simple and archly sadistic as they are addictive...
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According to a recent survey by Azuki systems, 52% of mobile users access the mobile Web, but 80% wish it were easier to get information there. Aside from the mobile Web numbers being considerably higher than we see from more formal metrics, I am not sure exactly what numbers or sentiments like this...
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Viral marketing campaigns are notoriously unpredictable. Until you send an edgy piece of promotional creative out into the wild, or initiate a UGC come-on, who knows whether it will fall flat or "go viral." I was intrigued by the small scale success of mobile UGC campaign from 211(me) for a...
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This whirlwind tour of mobile video comes to an end for now with the granddaddy (in mobile years) of the format, MobiTV. Well, let me qualify. A "whirlwind tour" encompasses my basement office, living room lounger and Borders, where I tested most of these services. For me, that's getting...
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My ongoing tour of mobile video this week brings me to clip casting, the non-linear VOD experience that lets users "snack" on snippets of TV and Web fare, trailers, music vids, etc. I am not sure we know yet what kind of ritual mobile video snacking is or will become, and this is going to be...