Tom Dibble

Until recently, the mobile marketing industry was too embryonic to be noticed. Its explosive growth in Europe over the past nine months has now shown SMS-based marketers that they have a fantastic opportunity to talk to their prospects and bases on a one-to-one basis. Perfect, some might say. But as with anything new, there are inherently new rules of engagement where old methodologies aren't necessarily applicable. The mobile Internet has the potential to become the media channel of the future. According to IDC, revenue from mobile applications was set to rise from $3.3 billion in 2001 to $44.8 billion in 2005; this includes revenue from mobile advertising. However, as fantastic as it sounds, it's also one of the most fragile ingredients of the new marketing mix. If yo... (more)

SMS: A Cash Cow?

As much as a parent might be beguiled by the acronyms that teenagers use when texting to each other, MNOs definitely are not. Handsets nowadays are building on SMS "speak" by integrating the truncated phrases into their phones so messages can be sent by pressing a single key on their handsets. Make no mistake, text messaging is on a roll in the U.S., and MNOs seem to be scrambling to tak... (more)

Bluejack City - A new wireless craze is spreading through Europe

Just as SMS was spawned, there's a new craze that's spreading across parts of Europe. Reportedly, it's more prominent in the UK, but popular elsewhere too. Bluejacking, as you may have guessed, involves the Bluetooth standard to send anonymous messages to other Bluetooth-capable handsets with security disabled. This is as close to hand-to-hand mobile combat as you're going to get. Blueto... (more)

EuroWireless, 3G Rules Have Changed

3G Rules Have Changed We've all heard the promises that 3G will deliver a plethora of full-motion, audiovisual streaming applications and services. But at what cost? Operators will have to charge for these - over and above anything delivered so far - then convince you that they'll be worth paying for. Exaggerated subsidization of handsets could well be a thing of the past. Packaging, Pac... (more)

All the Wireless Buzz from Europe

Nokia Game 2001: Gaming Experience or Marketing Effort? by Tom Dibble Wireless games are expected to generate revenues of $4.4 billion by 2006, a revised prediction after Ovum had questioned Datamonitor's initial prediction of a mobile games market worth over $16 billion. Datamonitor's earlier prediction, first revealed at ECTS 2000, was one of the catalysts of the hype surrounding the wir... (more)