As I already wrote about technical aspects of The Next Generation Mobile Phones, recently, however I had some follow-up thoughts within a broader context on this topic.
This summer, a new service will begin in Spain, and later spread to other European countries, to make mobile payments easier. Called Simpay, it is jointly owned by some of Europe’s largest mobile operators. Simpay is designed to function as a non-profit organisation with a common brand. The idea is that eventually all of Europe’s 70m mobile users will be able to click on a “buy with Simpay” logo whenever they use their mobiles to surf the web. Any purchases will then be charged to their mobile bill. If Simpay is anywhere near as successful as PayPal, eBay’s online payments system, it might give the banks a jolt: PayPal now has more than 60m account-holders worldwide.
As mobile phones are increasingly used for shopping, their appeal as a medium for reaching consumers at the point of purchase will grow. Along with services such as global positioning systems, which some handsets already provide, and software that can monitor online behaviour, a handset could offer all kinds of novel things - even telling you where to find that item you are searching for in the supermarket, and that it is on special offer.
“Anything that is screen-based will be able to be used as an ad-serving mechanism,” says Andy Jung, director of advertising and media for Kellogg’s. Other marketeers agree. The mobile phone is a very personal device: a faithful companion that nearly always stays with its owner.
Furthermore, the mobile phone is itself a powerful brand builder, as Samsung’s success has shown. From near-bankruptcy after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Samsung is now neck-and-neck with America’s Motorola as the second-biggest maker of handsets after Nokia. In terms of market capitalisation, the South Korean company is worth a lot more than Sony, which has long been the king of consumer electronics. Samsung was seen as a producer at the low end of the price spectrum and had a poor reputation for quality, especially in South Korea itself. Yet by concentrating on making handsets that worked better than its rivals’, at first in its home market and then for export, it improved its image. Good-quality handsets got people to look at Samsung’s other products, such as digital cameras and flat-screen televisions.
To conclude, the mobile phone will become an even more powerful marketing medium, says Vodafone’s Mr Wheldon. “But it is one where we proceed with gigantic caution.” People may use their mobile services differently in different countries, but consumers everywhere have one thing in common: they never seem to have enough time. If too many ads are pushed on to the screens of handsets, users could become dissatisfied with their service provider and get very annoyed with the advertisers, as they already do about “pop-up” ads on the internet. Whichever way mobile phone marketing evolves, Mr Wheldon says it must be “hugely respectful” of users and their time. Another victory, then, for consumer power.
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