Entries for month: December 2011
How mobile will affect the strategy of newspapers
20 December 2011 · By Otto Sjöberg
I like bold statements. Bold statements make things happen.
It was a bold statement when CEO Eric Schmidt last year at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona announced Google's completely new strategy: mobile-first.
“It's not a phone anymore,” he explained. “It's your alter ego, an extension of everything we do.”
In the year following that statement a lot of important things happened in the mobile industry:
- Android grew to be the dominant operating system for mobile phones.
- Smartphones outsold PCs in the last quarter of 2010 (although Eric Schmidt eight months earlier predicted the shift would come in 2013).
- Apple became the fourth-largest producer of mobile phones.
- Nokia fired its Finnish CEO and appointed the first foreigner, a Canadian from Microsoft.
- Nokia and Microsoft joined hands to start fighting for a dominant position in the mobile ecosystem.
- Microsoft acquired Skype for US$8.5 billion.
- And Google acquired Motorola for US$12.5 billion.
A couple of weeks ago, I heard another bold statement, this time at the Open Mobile Summit in San Francisco. On stage was John Donahoe, CEO of eBay: “I believe there will be more change in how consumers shop and pay in the next three years than there has been in the last 20. Think about that.”
...[more]The IKEA trail and what it means for your mobile products
13 December 2011 · By Dirk Barmscheidt
My wife asked me last week to look for a new sideboard for the living room. No problem. A standard piece of furniture which should be easily to be find. I thought.
A visit in a furniture store is a complex and often time intensive event especially for us men. Starting with a clear focus, in my case a simple sideboard, the desire wakes up. Inspired by the full range of furniture you are running from the living room section to the kitchen area, children’s section and bathroom area. And always right through the whole furniture store, always in fear that you missed something.
The IKEA experience next Saturday was completely different. What a blessing for me. You don’t need to think about the order of departments. Just follow the stream, it will bring you everywhere. And the range is clear and well structured. Wonderful!
And this is what I advise every Web site master: Build your mobile Web site or app based on the “IKEA trap” concept. The key figures are simple but not often executed:
...[more]How newsmedia companies can sell mobile to advertisers
08 December 2011 · By Mark Challinor
Many newsmedia companies now have their consumer revenue/subscription services set up or at least are in the process of doing it. So, what’s the next focus for the business?
Attention now shifts to the monetisation of our advertising assets.
We need to start ramping up our inventory sales process for selling mobile advertising, which can come in a number of forms, be it sponsorship, ad serving, or ad placement.
This firstly requires buy in. From the top down, we need acceptance and “gospel preaching” of such (internally and externally) that this is the route you are heading… and then resource the area accordingly.
So what is needed? I offer four areas for concentration:
1. Education (again, internally and externally)
- There is a general need for fuller education internally of industry sales staff on how to sell mobile. For example: What’s a good app/bad app? What mobile services are at our disposal? How do the various platforms/devices differ? What are the benefits/disadvantages of each? What measurement techniques will we use? How will we price it? And let’s not forget being immersed into examining what our competitors are doing, what they’re claiming regarding audiences et cetera.
