Netsize news – Mobile payments, marketing, premium & bulk sms mms messaging

In brief: Moving on with another in the “best of” selection of executive interviews from the Netsize Guide 2010 and setting the stage for a new white paper revealing the results of the Netsize Mobile Trends Survey looking at mobile commerce acceptance and attitudes. We speak with Scott Dunlap, Founder & CEO of NearbyNow, a U.S. – based provider of personal shopping services.

The sale of digital goods continues to be a robust business. In fact, the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) – the global trade body for the mobile media and entertainment industry – told MSG in this podcast that overall confidence in the mobile entertainment market continues to climb. Little wonder that the organization projects that the value of the mobile media market will rise from $32 billion for 2009 to $36 billion for 2010. (listen to the podcast here.)

However, the much more exciting opportunity could be mobile commerce that bridges the digital and physical worlds, allowing consumers to pay for real goods and services using their mobile phones and mobile retail apps.

MOBILE COMMERCE SURVEY RESULTS

Indeed, consumers see real value in mobile commerce and the convenience of being able to find and buy goods (digital and physical) at the moment of inspiration. It’s a profound shift that we’ll explore in more depth when Netsize releases the next in its series of thought leadership white papers analyzing the results of its milestone Mobile Trends Survey 2010.

By way of background, Netsize conducted a survey of over 1,000 professionals and practitioners across 67 countries to gain insights into key trends that top the industry agenda, including the advance of mobile applications stores, progress towards global mobile commerce and the pivotal importance of mobile as a means to bridge our virtual and physical worlds. (Download the apps report here.)

CONTEXT MATTERS A LOT (!)

But it’s not just about buying stuff with our mobile phones; it’s about enhancing our complete retail experience and transforming our mobile phones into what some call the fourth retail channel.

It’s not so far-fetched. Already, consumers – particularly smartphone owners – are researching and purchasing goods and services on the move. In fact, Compete, a Kantar Media company that produces a quarterly Smartphone Intelligence survey, forecasts a mobile shopping “explosion” this year as more people use their phones to comparison shop and ultimately buy goods on the go.

At the other end of the spectrum, a January 2010 survey of holiday shoppers from Motorola found that more than half (51 percent) of consumers across 11 countries used their mobile phones for in-store activities such as comparison shopping and for obtaining peer feedback, product information, and coupons.

All this bodes well for companies that enable retailers to offer opportunities for new levels of consumer connection.

INTERVIEW WITH NEARBYNOW CEO SCOTT DUNLAP

Success in retail is all about helping consumers find and buy what they want most. NearbyNow, a U.S. – based provider of personal shopping services, has taken this experience a step further, providing mobile shopping applications for magazines, brands, and retailers so that their consumers can stay updated on the latest products, buy online, or even locate and put products on hold at a nearby store. In 2009 the company released a succession of iPhone applications for lifestyle publications such as GQ, Seventeen, Brides, Lucky, Runner’s World and others, all based on their iPhone Platform. NearbyNow currently partners with more than 65,000 stores across the U.S. and continues to build mobile applications for leading lifestyle brands, retailers, and publications. Scott talks about the future of shopping and the role of social interaction.

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