Mobile bubble is set to burst
By Simon Fuller. Upward mobility? When it comes to mobile marketing it’s easy to get swept away with a tide of buzz that includes smartphones, GPS technology and augmented reality. But there may be disappointments ahead.
“The market is peppered right now with unbridled enthusiasm and is seeing a lot of demand driven by trial, testing and curiosity,” says Gib Bassett, director of marketing at mobile marketing outfit Interactive Mediums. “It has created, I believe, a bit of a bubble, which sooner than later will burst. When this happens, novel iPhone apps will put many developers out of business and technologies without an application will flounder – like augmented reality, which although interesting, needs to be packaged in a better container to see greater adoption.”
And then there are smartphones, often tipped as ushering in the mobile marketing revolution. But there are obstacles to take-up – like those those hefty bills, for example.
“There is definitely a cool factor that goes along with iPhone and smartphone applications, location-based services [and the like],” says Jeff Hasen, CMO at mobile marketers HipCricket. “However, those functions require users to have fairly advanced devices. While adoption for smartphones is growing quickly, it’s still a limited audience.
“Functions that reach more consumers on more devices – like SMS and mobile WAP sites – are experiencing higher success rates,” he adds. “That’s not to say that there won’t be a market for the ‘richer’ smartphone functions, but adoption will be slower than some may expect, based on the hype. We always suggest that brands start with a broad-reaching program that provides a foundation, and then start to work their way up towards solutions with more of a wow factor, even if they reach fewer customers.”
Marketers might also want to re-evaluate just what role specific pieces of tech will be playing. Thanks to devices like the iPhone, consumers are heading to online stores via their mobiles in increasing numbers, but brands should perhaps be wary of putting too much faith in these ‘handheld shopping carts’.
“Consumer shopping behavior suggests mobile will play a supporting role as opposed to being a means to an end with respect to commerce and transactions,” says Bassett. “So there may be some disappointments coming here.”
