Community Marketing Blog: Our mobile phones are first and foremost

Our mobile phones are audio devices first and foremost; but you will be hard pressed to believe that these days. Wireless carriers advertising on TV or with full-page newspaper ads, trends of the mobile industry at various wireless trade shows, advertising newsletters, and mobile industry web sites will make you believe that we are all busy surfing the internet, keying in Google searches from our mobile phones and receiving relevant ads to our mobile phones. No need for talking anymore; Facebook, email and text messages are taking over.

The reality is a bit different.

Not everyone owns a fancy smart phone like the iPhone or the RIM Storm or the Google Android these days. Any phones that would make mobile internet useable if not pleasant represent 15% of the cell phone installed base.
Furthermore, recent surveys have shown that the complexity of modern mobile phones is leaving the majority of users frustrated and angry. Using a new handset is challenging to say the least for many people. You then have to wonder who is left surfing the web! Well, only 20 percent of mobile phone users like to use their handsets as an all-in-one multimedia device for music, videos, Web surfing and other non-voice activities. Voice is really what the 80% “minority” think matters! And if many desire additional services on their mobile devices, surveys after surveys have shown users would prefer voice as the main communication channel.

The economic downturn is also having a disruptive effect on data-based mobile content and services. Data services takes a hit as consumers play safe in recession and limit their monthly spend to only voice and text services.

The mobile user's heavy reliance on traditional voice therefore presents a business case for mobile service providers and advertisers to build on voice as a key application.

Voice represents the most ubiquitous, rich and accessible communications channel and thus presents a huge opportunity for companies to communicate with their users.

Each mobile handset presents device-specific user experiences. A voice user interface approach offers commonality across all devices, a consistent user experience to its
users and thus an opportunity to deliver value added services that will be easily adopted. Two additional social factors are stimulating the need for easy-to-use voice-activated services. These include the wider adoption of legislation that promotes use of hands-free wireless technology while driving, and the growing use of hosted personal contacts.

Since carriers have not risen to the challenge of building on new voice services to enhance average revenue per user (ARPU) opportunities, third parties have jumped in. One of them is AskKinjo in the Greater Toronto Area. AskKinjo is a voice activated audio service using a mobile phone to deliver free location-based content, supported by paid contextual ads. AskKinjo has positioned itself uniquely in the mobile advertising market with contextual audio advertisements that cannot be skipped and can reach 100% of the mobile subscribers market.

Internet giants are now offering voice-in display-out search application for mobile phones; Google (and Android), Microsofy and Yahoo!. And the consumer are enjoying it. In a recent study, participants initially predicted voice search would be the most difficult to use but in final usability, it performed better than expected. Participants enjoyed voice search and they liked it much more than searching via phone keypad."

North American mobile users are still heavily reliant on traditional voice features, despite a willingness to adopt newer, advanced applications. Mobile services and content providers need to recognize that voice is still the killer application with mobile users"

Let's put that audio technology to good use.

By: Stéphane Attal, CEO AskKinjo (www.AskKinjo.com, mobile location based information provider, Toronto, Canada)