For teens, the future is mobile
SAN FRANCISCO--Marketers convened here this week to figure out how best to reach teens on the Internet. The answer: It's all about the mobile phone.
Advertisers are clamoring to reach teens in digital environments because that's where they're spending much of their time--either online, with cell phones or playing video games. What's more, teens wield an estimated $200 billion annually in discretionary spending.
Fuse, a marketing agency based in Vermont, talked in recent weeks to senior technology executives from companies such as Sony, MTV Networks, Yahoo, and Nokia to find out what the future of technology will look like for the teen market.
Among the predictions: Mobile phones in the United States will surpass the popularity of desktops for teens. Only an estimated 20 percent of teens currently own a smartphone such as the iPhone, but mobile phone and content companies are counting on the idea that smartphone adoption will spread fast among teens in middle America and other areas.
"The iPhone is just the beginning of the all-in-one device. Uses of mobile devices will expand to include all kinds of bar code applications and prepaid debit card payment methods," said Bill Carter, a partner at Fuse, who presented the findings here at the YPulse 2008 National Mashup, a two-day conference on teens and technology.
That's likely why geographic ad targeting to teens via the phone is expected to explode in the coming years. Right now, mobile phone providers analyze an estimated 4 billion Internet Protocol addresses to provide street-level targeting to consumers. Companies like U.K.-based Blyk, for example, are reaching teens through the phone with ads and information on nearby nightspots. Teens sign up for the service.
"When you combine this new technology with teens giving their permission to market to them, the growth could be exponential," Carter said.
But, he said, mobile phone providers likely won't succeed as the entertainment leaders for the phone, despite their efforts to sell ringtones, games, and music. Other companies like Apple, Google, and Yahoo will be more effective at "side-loading" the cell phone with services.
Case in point: Most teens download music to their iPod that's been ripped from a friend's collection as opposed to bought from the iTunes music store. "There's a natural gravitation to get content on a device that's different than the one the manufacturer intended," he said.
As a corollary, he said that most teens will eventually buy subscription-based music services, much like the cable TV model. He predicted that Apple's iTunes will offer an unlimited monthly download service for music. Mobile phone companies, too, will launch music subscriptions on the smartphone.
Another prognostication: Other technology platforms will save, not kill TV networks, Carter said. The analog-to-digital conversion will make it possible for teens to watch live TV on portable devices. The technology will help the television networks target programming to specific audiences, and that will buoy the cost of advertising, he said.
"The device is inconsequential compared to the content," he said.
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How can you say that and go to sleep at night. The iPhone is years late and again Apple is claiming to be doing something first and you all just keep this crazy little fantasy going on and on.
I can't wait for the iPhone to finally get more and more features which the Windows based smartphones have had for years and to claim they did it first. What's next.....are they going to claim COPY AND PASTE next year if they ever get around to it.
I have been listening to mp3s, watching episodes of South Park while still able to log on to our corporate website and fill out work reports and uploads photos and browse our shared calendars.......all on a smartphone for at least the last 5 years........also open and edit word docs, view pdfs. I have been able to write custom apps web based that can be used from the Smartphone browser.......I have been able to take video, photos, record meetings using the audio recorder....I even have more than one battery for longer trips when I might be without my charger for a few days.....I have been able to take photos and videos of my kids and send them to my wife when she goes to the mall shopping just to make her feel guilty...I have been able to text message...I have been able to remote desktop into my office computers and into our web servers.....FULL DESKTOP functionality when I am remote desktoped in.....I can open desktop apps and work on the computer from my mobile smartphone.......I have been able to have multiple storage cards with different content on them in case my kids wanted to watch a movie or listen to something different.....I have GPS......I have used my phone as a modem for my laptop in a tight bind when my wireless card was broken...I have installed and enjoyed playing games such as Tiger Woods Golf and more for years and years....I have been able to zoom in (sorry...no finger swipe...but I have been able to zoom)....I have been able draw on my smartphone and save my drawings to jpgs or email them...I have been able to take photos and draw on the photos and send to someone....I have been able to make animations using my drawings like a flipbook on my smartphone....I have played tic-tac-toe with children on my smartphone....I have been able to set up excel speadsheets with formulas....I have been able to open databases on my smartphone and work on them for business....I have been able to update websites on my smartphone....I have playlists....I can customize the look and feel....I can view flash files....I have been on 3G for years.....
Oh..I forgot.... "The iPhone is just the beginning of the all-in-one device."
....it is great that Apple is joining the party...just stop making it seem like the invented every concept....oh and subscription based music has been around for years now.....DO NOT MAKE IT SEEM LIKE APPLE IS GOING TO BE THE FIRST TO DO THIS..........
thats alll u can say b/c groundchucky is stating nothing but facts.
apple is a joke and so is this author.
The only way to advertise is by selling the products on the streets of Tokyo, SF, NY, Hollywood.
The people will upload, organize, and market for free once in use. But to waste money marketing Online, cell,TV? what a dunce.
The funny thing is, this article was not about the iPhone; it was about mobile computing. The iPhone just happens to be on the front of everyone's mind right now, and that's why it was used as an example.
not the same ease, but more ease since there is nothing speical or unique about the iphone except for the 'i' in front of phone
My point in my reply was also that STILL, I can do so much more on my smartphone, and have been able to for the last 6 years now. There are features back in 2002 that I was using, still am using that the iPhone cannot give me. And you reply about not being able to use my phone with the same ease of use as the iPhone......this is the kind of rhetoric that drives me crazy.......I THINK MY WINDOWS BASED SMARTPHONES ARE MUCH EASIER THAN THE iPhones......there I said it. "But that is not what our master Steve Jobs has told us......no, this is blasphemy...can I have some more grape cool aid please?"
While driving, I can speak a person's name and have it call that person without having to look down....is that not easier...plus safer. Being able to send someone a photo or video immediately from my phone....is that not easier. Being able to replace my battery when I want to....is that not easier? Being able to customize my interface......oh I can keep coming up with subjective arguments to battle the iPhones' subjective claims all day and night. When sitting in the doctors office....I get a call from a customer who says they need a file that is on my computer back in the office......I remote desktop into my computer and email the file all from my smartphone....IS THAT NOT EASIER......what is easier about the iPhone when I can do so much more with mine and have been able to for years now.
I personally feel like if someone likes the iPhone.....then GREAT! There is noting bad about it and that is not my point.....Just stop with all this false hype and remaking of the facts. Bill Gates was asked by Donnie Duetch (I think that is how it is spelled) about 2 years ago what was on his iPod....his answer was "I don't have an iPod. I think a phone is a nice portable device to have one's music on...and I think some other people may do that in the future too, we'll see."
Pretty interesting to see who is ahead of the curve here. But that is not what people see.
You stated: "The funny thing is, this article was not about the iPhone; it was about mobile computing. The iPhone just happens to be on the front of everyone's mind right now, and that's why it was used as an example. "
The only reasone iPhone just happens to be on the front of everyone's mind right now is because of all the hype.....which honestly you have to give it up to Apple for their incredible marketing. But the people responsible for giving us reports and honest information seem to have either bought into the hype themselves or appear to have been bought out. I am not sure which but it makes no sense to me.
Perfect case in point to all you Apple followers out there.....for years you all would say how the Apple computers processors were so much faster then the processors used on Windows. "Our 1.8Mhz processor is so much faster then a Windows running Intel 1.8" I personnaly had 2 machines in my office back at the turn of the century with the same processors and I would test them and I would pull my hair out with the Apple...I could never understand how everyone could make these bogus statements. Then what does Apple do....a few years back they drop their own processors and go with INTEL....and their marketing......NOW OUR COMPUTERS WILL RUN EVEN FASTER.....faster then what their own processors that they said for years were faster than......oowwwww...my heads hurts just thinking of this.
People....open your minds.....make your own decisions based on your own beliefs.....but stop comparing APPLES to ORANGES.....! And stop following everything that is told you ....it is all marketing hype.
When it comes to iPhones, iPods.....I ask you all this to see where you really stand in understand what is marketing and hype versus what is real........what do you use to clean your ears? A Q-tip or a Cotton Swab?
Peace~
thanks for being able to see past the smoke and mirrors
All in one features started with Palm. First with PDAs allowing you work with office and sync with your PC with Wi Fi and GPS and after that the first smartphone Palm made all in one, just now with WiFi and GPS too., features that others mobiles makers did first. All other mobile makers followed Palm and Apple is making the same just now, its first mobile and opening its SDK to developers for applications too. This last strategy was made by Palm first too. So letīs make it fare. Congratulations to Palm for being the first mobile technology world wonder. Welcome iphone to the ground and congratulations for your improvement.
"The iPhone is just the beginning of the all-in-one device."
and jumped on the bash-wagon, but the rants were completely out of context.
read the full quote again:
"The iPhone is just the beginning of the all-in-one device. Uses of mobile devices will expand to include all kinds of bar code applications and prepaid debit card payment methods,"
Bill Carter is referring to smartphone devices. He uses "iPhone" just like your grandma refers to "the internet" as "the AOL." He used this specific example because everyone reading the article will know what an iPhone is, instead of the smartphone or Nokia N95.
The point of the quote, and the article, is not that the iPhone is a new kind of device (which we all agree it isn't), but
"That's likely why geographic ad targeting to teens via the phone is expected to explode in the coming years."
The fact that the iPhone and other smartphones are now so common, especially among teenagers, marketing should target mobile devices by using location based ads, etc. Did anyone here actually read the article?
JT
www.FireMe.To/udi
Good luck competing with that app store. Absolutely phenomenal and groundbreaking in every way. Where do you get your programs again? How easy is it? How do you know if they're any good?
Because I just hit "top 25" (free or paid), read a few reviews, and download them on the fly. There are already over 500 programs in every area imaginable. And yes, many of them are powerful programs with far reaching implications in a "real world" work environment since I know you can't wait to say something like, "yeah if you want to play super monkey ball..."
The App Store is THE model that will be copied on every smart phone before you know it.
The only people I know that hate Apple are the people that took a lot of time to learn how to do anything they wanted on a PC. Now people are doing more on macs in less than half the time with 1/100th of the frustration.
If PC land is so wonderful why is Vista a carbon copy of the operating system macs have been using for the last 5 years? Oh yeah, because people like it if the environment looks and behaves more like the real world. Huh.
Also can't wait for some ****** to post: ur a ***. macs are only good for graphics.