Jeff Hasen

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer

I appreciate the reception to my first Notes on A Mobilized Marketer column. We'll get on a regular cadence, likely twice a week. In the meantime, some new notes:

First up are more thoughts on the new iPad release:

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Some expected Siri to be on the new device. I wasn’t one of them. In my opinion, the exclusion is all about the 50 million additional iPads that Apple is projected to sell this year. The Siri voice recognition system was overwhelmed by demand when the iPhone 4S was introduced. My hunch is the backend can’t handle 50 million more asking where is the nearest place to buy a taco.

Fanboys (and fangirls) were more than pleased to write about iPad pre-orders selling out for launch-day delivery. Isn’t that just half the story? How many devices have been ordered? The sellout could have as much to do with a lack of supply as with demand.

Apple spent all it's iPad naming time coming up with resolutionary. Fail. Just like phablet for the tablet/smartphone hybrid.

Yes, there were iPad rumors that missed -- tactile functionality and the name to mention just two. Are we taking names of those who passed along nonsense?

A faster iPad run through carrier networks means consumers will need to spend more with the mobile operators. The appetite for that is limited versus just using Wi-Fi.

China got to one billlion mobile subscribers with "only" 15 million iPhone users.

Of course, there was more than Apple news in the last several days:

The headlines around the comScore report centered on the milestone of 100 million smartphones in the United States. What was more newsy to me? Nearly 50 percent of mobile subscribers now use the mobile Web and the same number view apps. Plus, more than one third access social networks or blogs on mobile. And, 75 percent of all U.S. mobile subscribers are now texting, up 3 points. So much for the death of SMS.

Approximately 75 percent in a Sports Illustrated survey say they want to access to both the print and tablet edition. I’m one of those – having SI in my hands is a habit that is hard to break.

Are you waiting for convergence? It's here – Google’s mobile homepage now shows recent searches from your computer.

In the “keep the hype out of mobile category”, no, contrary to the lead in one story, Square doesn't expect its new iPad app to "replace cash registers for small businesses & merchants".

Barcelona's Diet of Ham and Mobile

Tourists travel to Barcelona to feast on ham. Geeks go there this time of the year to get their fill of what’s next in mobile.

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Here’s what I’ll be looking for from the Mobile World Congress that starts Sunday with news conferences:

Virtually every announcement and product introduction will be positioned as a game changer. We likely will ultimately count on one hand how many live up to the hype.

No one will need longer battery life innovation than the nearly 60,000 in attendance who will do a Spanish dance for power outlets. The other large constituent rooting for more sustained smartphone life will be those pushing the mobile wallet concept. Mobile subscribers will need devices that keep pace with their lifestyles.

Will we see more hybrids like the 5.3 inch Samsung Galaxy Note device that was introduced during the Super Bowl telecast? Is this what consumers desire? I haven’t personally thought of the day when my smartphone and tablet would become one for more effective note taking. And I also haven’t met anyone who desires such a combination smartphone/tablet device. There are hundreds or thousands of smartphone and tablet applications that were built to take down our notes. The Siri voice assistant on my iPhone 4S does this effectively using speech recognition and natural language understanding. Personally, I’m happy to leave my stylus days in the past. But I’m also happy to concede that one form factor won’t win the game.

There are rumors that Nokia will introduce a 12 megapixel phone. With picture taking right behind text messaging as the leading mobile subscriber activities, advancements in photo capture should be well received.

RIM is reported to be about six months away from introducing new devices. The company is in danger of being irrelevant. Software demonstrations in Barcelona won’t cut it.

Speed will be on display with quad core processors. Too bad RIM can’t strap one on to its fortunes.

On Tuesday, we will learn if my company Hipcricket will be named the “Mobile Marketing and Advertising Agency of the Year” by the GSM Association. Hipcricket was selected as a finalist from a pool of more than 600 entries. The award honors firms that are "spearheading the growth, adoption and evolution of mobile advertising".

If you want more on what to expect in Barcelona, Engadget’s preview is for you.

I’ll blog about developments during the week.

Of Cranberry Bread and The Myth of a Generational Technology Divide

My holiday period scorecard?

Thirteen slices of cranberry bread. More sandies than I care to count. Sips (or was it gulps) of Washington wine that brought a calm end to a frenetic year.

And insights that will make me a better marketer in 2012.

What did I learn in those brief moments when I wasn’t stuffing my face?

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The fact that the supposed technology divide between generations is bogus. 

My first inkling?

Soon after receiving her first iPad, my mother-in-law downloaded an app and streamed music that filled a room. She shouted out the ingredients for a holiday dinner, then gleefully taught the rest of us the shortcut of using three fingers to zoom in and out on her tablet.

My mother-in-law is 82. Oh, and she has been using a Kindle for three years and in 2010 learned the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system in about three days.

The second sign?

The same sister-in-law who passed off my gadget time as trivial did not let her first smartphone out of her hands, much less her sight. Sure, she was doing many of the activities we were doing in 2007, but gone were the feature phone, triple-tapping, and inability to effectively reach the Internet and all it has to offer.

My sister in law is 55. Her 65-year-old husband says that he is next up for a smartphone.

Judging by the statistics, my focus group of one is representative.

According to Nielsen, we are on the way to 56 percent of U.S. seniors using the Internet in 2015 versus 45 percent in 2010. eMarketer says that 31 percent of seniors accessed social networking sites in 2011, with an estimated 36 percent projected to use them by 2013.

After younger adults, the segment with the second fastest-growing smartphone penetration rate is those aged 55-64. Smartphone penetration among this older group is only 30 percent, but it jumped 5 percent in the third quarter of 2011.

Tablet ownership among those older than 55 climbed from 10 to 19 percent between fall of 2010 and summer of 2011.

For marketers, these behavior changes provide unmatched opportunities to reach Boomers and seniors with personalized campaigns that will move product and drive loyalty. My in-laws each commented on ads they were seeing and were well aware of QR codes.

We’ll look back at 2011 as the Year of Mobile Commerce during the holiday shopping season. Those who purchased in great numbers likely skewed younger, but that may not always be the case as older wireless device owners take advantage of the convenience and knowledge that smartphones and tablets bring.

As for me, my gadgets are the ideal January tools to find weight-loss solutions.

(first posted on imediaconnection.com - http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2012/01/03/of-cranberry-bread-and-the-...

Too Much Emphasis On Smartphones?

Mobile Marketer asked me for a 2012 prediction. With all the talk about fancy phones, marketers need to remember those with less sophisticated devices:

"I predict that many marketers will neglect feature phone users as smartphone share tops 50 percent. Sure, we need to provide rich experiences to those with highly-capable devices, but we can't afford to forget the approximate 160 million Americans who will continue to carry simple phones for the foreseeable future. Mobile marketing will continue to be about reach in 2012."

The full article is here: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/strategy/11746.html