Is your mobile marketing strategy as smart as your phone?

Mobile Marketing in this times. Trends.

Francisco De Jesús.  Ecuador, South America, October 07, 2010

I would say the old fashion way to launch smartphones  with an exclusivity to a carrier and then wait  6 months to launch in another carrier, is dead.

If you are smartphone manufacturer and you are still using the same marketing strategy, you will be smashed by your competition.

Today the trend is to make several models with different form factors and names, with similar features but with little differences between them.

Case #1

Motorola in China launched  3 smartphones with 3 different names on 3 carriers August 30,2010.

Motorola Monday launched three new Ming series Android smartphones for China Telcom, China Unicom and China Mobile. The phones include the MT810 for China Mobile's TD-SCDMA network, the XT806 for China Telecom's CDMA-2000 network, and the A1680 for China Unicom's WCDMA network.

The MT810 is being jointly launched with China Mobile and China Mobile's OPhone OS 2.0 implementation of Android. The MT810 has a dual-touch system in which the 3.2-inch display is a resistive touchscreen perfect for stylus or finger input and the transparent cover is a second capacitive touchscreen that offers full finger touch functionality even when the phone is closed. 

The XT806 is an Internet-connected powerhouse built on Android 2.1 and offered by Motorola for China Telecom has a transparent flip design and a 3.2-inch screen with a 300dpi display, GPS navigation services and 720p HD video capture and playback.

Finally the A1680 features a 3.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen and supports China Unicom's WCDMA network, as well as WAPI and Wi-Fi high-speed connectivity. Motorola perfected its intelligent handwriting recognition software for the A1680. The A1680 also has a 5MP camera and GPS navigation services.

Source:http://worldwidegadget.blogspot.com/2010/08/motorola-launches-3-smartphones-models.html

Case #2

On this article by zdnet called:” 24 hours and we saw 12 Android smartphones on six US carriers”, you can see the why of the android succeed .

AT&T

Three new Motorola handsets are coming to AT&T, the Motorola Bravo, Flipside, and Flipout. These three are entry to mid-level Android devices, which seems to be the standard for AT&T in almost all cases, except for the Samsung Captivate.
The Bravo has a 3.7 inch display and will be available for $129.99. The Flipside has a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard and 3.1 inch display with a price of $99.99. The Flipout has a funky flip out QWERTY keyboard and small 2.8 inch display with a price of just $79.99.

Cellular South

You know a platform is getting popular when the smaller regional carriers start picking it up and now we see Cellular South getting ready to offer their own Samsung Galaxy S variant, the Samsung Showcase. There is no pricing or available date, other than before the holidays, but it does have the 1 GHz Hummingbird CPU, 4 inch Super AMOLED display, 5 megapixel camera, and Android 2.1 operating system.

Sprint

Sprint also announced three new devices, the Samsung Transform, Sanyo Zio, and LG Optimus S. The Sanyo Zio has a full 3.5 inch touchscreen and mid-level specs with a price of $99. The Samsung Transform looks similar to the Sprint Samsung Epic, with lower specs and the same kind of slide-out QWERTY keyboard at a price of $149. The LG Optimus S is a fairly traditional looking device with a 3.2 inch touchscreen with Android 2.2 and a price of just $49.99. Again, these three are low to mid-level Android device for Sprint.

T-Mobile

T-Mobile USA only announced one device in the last 24 hours, but this follows their current rollout of the T-Mobile G2 and future myTouch device. The LG Optimus T looks to be similar to the Sprint version (note the T for T-Mobile versus the S for Sprint) with very few details released. It will have a couple of colors, be loaded with Android 2.2, and a 3.2 megapixel camera, but we do not have a price or solid release date.

US Cellular

I previously took a look at the excellent HTC Desire on U.S. Cellular and was very impressed with the device and their service offering. In another great move for this regional carrier, they are rolling out the Samsung Mesmerize, which is another of the Samsung Galaxy S devices. The Mesmerize will launch on 27 October for $199.

Verizon

It must be the law of threes at CTIA as Verizon Wireless also announced three new Android devices, all from Motorola. The Motorola Droid Pro, that we previously mentioned, the Motorla Defy, and the Motorola Citrus were revealed at CTIA.
The Motorola Droid Pro is a sweet looking front facing QWERTY keyboard Android device with good specifications and an appealing form factor. The Motorola Defy is a semi-ruggedized Android smartphone with a 3.1 inch touchscreen and Gorilla glass on a water and dust resistant shell. The Motorola Citrus is an entry-level Android device powered by Android 2.1.

No assigned carrier

Motorola also announced the Motorola Spice device with no news of a US carrier. It may be headed to Brazil and actually has a cool form factor, vertical QWERTY slider like a Palm Pre Plus, that many here would probably appreciate.
It is pretty amazing to see all of these devices announced on all the carriers at one event and shows you how flexible Android can be in covering the entire spectrum of smartphone buyers.

The other way  for tablets  is to not give exclusive contracts  to carriers.

Case #3

 Samsung is launching the Galaxy Tab in the 4 US carriers at the same time. Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and T-mobile.

Source: http://worldwidegadget.blogspot.com/2010/09/sansung-galaxy-tab-tablet-promo-video.html

If you license your mobile OS you will have more chances to spread  your asset to more mobile manufacturers and then to more carriers wideworld .

Where to begin selling smartphones?

Italy Leads in Smartphone Adoption

Despite America’s reputation as a nation of big talkers — the U.S. is not setting the pace in smartphone adoption — ranking third when ranked by penetration. Italy has the largest percentage of smartphone owners at 28%, while Spain is not far behind with 23%. France has the most room to grow, with an 11% penetration level.

What gender is predominant?

Smartphone Gender Gap Continues

With the continued expansion of smartphone ownership in the U.S. and the availability of more affordable devices, the market is opening up to a wider range of consumers. However, we continue to see similar demographic profiles for smartphone owners as we did a year ago. While smartphone usage is shifting from purely business use to both personal and business use, owners are still more than two times as likely to own a smartphone for business usage only. Smartphone owners continue to be predominantly male, are 65% more likely than the average mobile subscriber to be between the ages of 25 and 34, and nearly two times as likely to make more than $100,000 a year.

How to measure those opportunities ?

With Smartphone Adoption on the Rise, Opportunity for Marketers is Calling

We have seen that the mobile industry is on a fast-track, with massive growth in mobile marketing, advertising and paid-content for users. But what is really leading this growth is the increase in quality devices and fast, affordable data. While smartphone ownership was once just a business tool, more consumers than ever are using smartphones in their everyday lives. In the past year alone, the total number of smartphone subscribers increased 72% quarter-over-quarter, growing from 15 million subscribers in Q2 2008 to 26 million in Q2 2009. While the penetration level of smartphone users is still fairly low – nearly 17% in Q2 2009 – they make up half of the mobile Web audience.

What’s Next?

So while more people are buying smartphones and penetration levels are increasing, the demographics are not significantly changing yet. There is a lot of untapped potential available to marketers to reach a whole new generation of smartphone users.

Is your mobile marketing strategy as smart as your phone?