Netsize, a leading mobile commerce and communications enabler, today revealed the first results of the Mobile Trends Survey 2010. Drawing from an online survey of 1,000+ professionals and practitioners, the survey provides 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.

Using the occasion of M-Days – one of Europe’s biggest mobile industry events and exhibitions held in Munich, Germany – Netsize provided conference attendees, industry influencers and key bloggers a sneak peek into the controversial survey results, starting with respondents’ views on app store leaders and the enablers that give them and their offers the competitive edge.

According to the survey, the vast majority (87 percent) of respondents believe the Apple App Store will be the most successful app store in the mobile space. Google’s Android Market is a distant second (60 percent), followed by Nokia’s Ovi Store (30 percent) and RIM’s BlackBerry App World (27 percent). Surprisingly, applications stores run by mobile operators finished low in the list, indicating that platform providers and handset makers may well dominate the space for a time to come.

When asked to rate the unique selling proposition of application stores over other software distribution and sales channels, 65 percent of respondents put convenience (“everything in one place”) at the top of the list. This was followed by compatibility “software applications specific to the device”), choice (“a long tail of thousands of applications to choose from”), and ease of payment (“operator billing, for example”).

Netsize, provider of operator billing solutions to most of the large mobile device vendors for their application stores, released the application store survey findings to the stage for a lively discussion of the future of mobile and the role of software application stores during “Mobile Trends 2020, Mobile Research and App-Commerce: What Comes Next in Europe?” The M-Days session was led and moderated by Peggy Anne Salz, mobile thought leader and MSearchGroove Founder and Chief Analyst.

The complete mobile trends survey results – which cover topics related to mobile entertainment, mobile marketing, mobile commerce, mobile payments and mobile convergence – will be released as part of the Netsize Guide 2010, a comprehensive mobile industry analysis and almanac published by Netsize and written by MSearchGroove’s Salz. Netsize will launch the Netsize Guide 2010 on February 16, 2010 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

The largest mobile network operator is Vodacom (52% market share, source: Vodacom), MTN is second (35% market share, source: MTN) and Cell C, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Oger Telecom, is third (4.2 million subscribers, 8.8% market share, source: Cell C). Some 7% have 3G subscriptions.

Mobile, anyone?

South Africa is a very attractive market for mobile services. According to a report from Frost & Sullivan, demand for mobile content services in South Africa will grow by an average of 15 per cent per year until 2013.

It is also the most advanced mobile territory in Africa, with a European-style infrastructure, and consumers whose first introduction to telecoms and the web comes from mobile. Mobile broadband usage is as common as fixed line.

The Mobile Marketing Association recently released some interesting statistics about the phenomenal growth in this market and the current state of mobile adoption in South Africa, as summarized in an article by 20fourLabs.

South Africa is a nation sparkling with confidence, higher than many parts of the world (source: Bureau for Economic Research), and with great ambitions as the 2010 World Cup is gripping this sports mad country!

Launching mobile content services in South Africa

In November Netsize launched its mPayment operator-based billing solution with South Africa coverage with MO premium and MT premium billing. On Vodacom and MTN (total 87% market share) both MT and MO premium are available, and a long number for sending and receiving messages.

Multiple price points per short code are possible. MO premium is available on Cell C with a single price point per short code. For the most common price points shared short codes will be available.

Applications …

Popular mobile applications include banking (money transfer services), advertisement (mobile marketing) and entertainment (content/infotainment and social networking).

Whereas traditional direct marketing and online marketing is costly and less effective due to the language situation and lack of broadband access, mobile is providing an alternative marketing channel. Direct and personal, it has the widest reach of all in this vast country.

With 4 times more people using sms than email, it is clear that in this country the mobile is everyone’s “first screen.”

Regulatory aspects

As most countries, South Africa has put in place industry self regulation. The WASPA Code of Conduct promotes fairness and decency in dealings with subscribers and members in the content value chain.

Advertising must follow the rules in the Advertising Code of Conduct, with clear communication on pricing matters. Operators have set some specific rules as well in particular for MT subscription services.

Online seminar

If you would like to know more on how to launch mobile content services in South Africa and Netsize mobile messaging, billing and marketing solutions, we invite you to view the Netsize online seminar on South Africa at www.netsize.com.

In our latest report, “Netsize Mobile Marketing Survey 2009: Can companies and brands rise to challenge and cash in on the mobile marketing opportunity?”, we explore the do’s and don’ts.

Key results

• Companies and brands bullish on mobile marketing benefits, but lack skills set to execute campaigns
• Strong growth ahead for SMS and MMS messaging, positive outlook for branded apps and mobile websites
• High interest in targeting consumers, but high concerns that opt-in databases won’t deliver

Click here to request your free copy of the 12-page Summary Report of this study, and we’ll send you an email with your personal download link to the report.

We’ll present the results of this study at the MobileSQUARED Roadshow “Taking Internet Mobile” seminar in London, November 5, 2009.

• International survey reveals companies and brands bullish on mobile marketing benefits, but lack skills set to execute campaigns
• Strong growth ahead for SMS and MMS messaging, positive outlook for branded apps and mobile websites
• High interest in targeting consumers, high concerns that opt-in databases won’t deliver

Among the key findings:

• Mobile is part of the mix to attract and keep customers: The vast majority of respondents (56%) currently use mobile to acquire new customers. But that will change as respondents follow through on their plans to boost customer retention and loyalty through mobile marketing (64%), streamline transactions (37%) and enable commerce and sales using a mobile device (37%).
• Messaging is essential: Usage of MMS is poised for significant growth, with with 22% of respondents revealing plans to double deployment in the next six months. The use of SMS messaging is also on the rise, but will move from a one-way message to a two-way conversation.
• Marked interest in more innovative formats: Respondents reported use of branded content will increase from 29% to 35%, use of branded apps will rise from 23% to 35%. Finally, use of mobile coupons and QR codes will jump from 20% to 31%.
• Mobile marketing is teamwork: The vast majority of respondents (47%) outsource to providers that can meet their requirements for a fully-managed marketing solution. Campaign execution services was the most sought-after skill (57%), followed by measurement, analytics and reporting (54%), technical services and integration (52%), and mobile campaign management (52%).
• Quality of opt-in campaign databases is a main concern: One-third of respondents (32%) expressed concern over the quality of the customer mobile phone numbers stored in their opt-in databases.

“Market adoption of mobile marketing is accelerating. The survey results and analysis show companies and brands recognize the business benefits associated with mobile marketing and are serious about integrating mobile in their strategies,” says Stanislas Chesnais, Chairman and CEO, Netsize. “Respondents told us they are increasing use of messaging to engage in conversations with consumers on their mobile phone, and stepping up efforts to harness other exciting formats and approaches such as WAP sites, mobile websites and branded content. This momentum can only grow as the economy picks up steam.”

ABOUT THE REPORT

“Netsize Mobile Marketing Survey 2009: Can companies and brands rise to challenge and cash in on the mobile marketing opportunity?” is available from www.netsize.com.
The survey was conducted by Netsize to determine the role and usage of mobile marketing and the perceived business benefits. In total 221 respondents from four regions (Europe, Americas, Asia Pacific/Australia and Africa/Middle East) participated in this online survey for the period from September 15, 2009 through October 1, 2009.

Netsize, leading mobile commerce and communications enabler, today announced the launch of its Global market survey for Mobile Marketing.

The survey aims to uncover the extent to which mobile marketing has become a mature instrument in the marketing mix. Researched topics include strategic drivers, tactics, resources, opt-in data and short term plans for deployment.

The survey follows the one that Netsize conducted end of 2008 in collaboration with Informa Telecoms & Media as part of the Netsize Guide 2009. The study found that the number of companies that spend over 5% of their digital budget on mobile was expected to increase from 30% to 49% by 2010, a growth of 63%.

“The results very clearly suggested that mobile marketing is bound to become main stream,” says Stanislas Chesnais, Chairman and CEO, Netsize. “This year’s survey provides a reality check: how are companies moving ahead with mobile marketing in the current economic frame, and what did they do to enable successful campaigns.”

The Netsize mobile marketing survey report will be published begin October. A summary of the report is available free of charge to all participants.

Participate in the survey

Netsize is currently conducting a global survey on mobile marketing. The survey aims to obtain insight to what extent mobile marketing has become a mature instrument in the marketing mix.

We regard mobile marketing as the use of a mobile phone for marketing communications, commerce and services, between a company and its targeted audiences.

Please share your views and experiences with others by participating in this survey.

If you would like to receive the summary report, you may fill in your email address at the end of this survey and we’ll send it to you by email at the beginning of October.

The survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete and participation in the survey is anonymous.

To begin the survey, click here.

Paris, June 9, 2009 — Netsize, leading mobile commerce and communications enabler, today announced the availability of mMarketing V2.0, its web-based solution for managing mobile marketing campaigns.

“This new version enables resellers to provide their customers with a mobile marketing solution that runs out-of-the-box and can be custom-branded,” said Stéphane Roder, Group Marketing Director, Netsize. “Mobile marketing is crossing the chasm towards mass adoption. With Netsize mMarketing channel partners have the opportunity to start capitalizing on this trend in a key segment: small and medium-sized enterprises.”

Netsize mMarketing supports multiple media, including SMS, MMS, and Mobile Internet (WAP). Interactive marketing campaigns are simple to create as mMarketing supports the receipt of SMS responses.

During campaign execution, administrators remain in full control. They have a real-time view on progress and can suspend, resume and abort campaigns at any time. Campaign reports provide details on effective campaign reach and responses, including reply word statistics.

Netsize mMarketing is fully compliant with national messaging rules and regulations, and codes of conduct.

It is the first survey in the world to compare mobile data prices across this many countries. It covers over 500 package variations, for postpaid and prepaid payment models. The objective of the survey is to provide a quantitative snapshot of mobile data download charges for end-users when downloading mobile content to their handsets.

“This survey especially benefits companies that are selling mobile content with heavy data charges,” observed Ludovic Maupain, VP Marketing & Operators Partnerships, Netsize. He added “with download sizes increasing, it is important that mobile content providers have an idea on how much data charge might influence the perceived total cost of their products to end users.” The Netsize study reveals that mobile data pricing varies considerably across these countries, and also within operator groups.

“Many end users do not have a flat rate data subscription yet, which can cause large downloads to become very costly,” Ludovic Maupain added. “Awareness of data charges across Europe will help local and international content providers to tune their mobile content services for an optimal end user experience.”

According to the survey end users without a data package subscription, known as the pay-as-you-go model, pay the highest rates in Italy, between €40 and €60 per 1 MB, whereas end users in other countries pay between €1 and €2. For a 100 MB data subscription the average charges range from €8 (1,995 HUF) in Hungary to €33 (249 DKK) in Denmark. The current average cost per MB for the smallest data subscription is €1, going down to as little as €0.01 on very large subscription packages of 1 GB and over.

The 45-page report includes detailed information on more than 500 mobile data packages that are available in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and Australia. Details provided include operator name, package name, subscription type, type of coverage (GPRS, WAP, internet), fee structure, and time and size-based fees. The data was collected in the second quarter of 2008.

“International Mobile Data Charges: A pan-European report on the retail price plans for mobile internet and broadband services” is currently available to Netsize clients and can also be purchased directly at www.netsize.com, for the price of €995 ex. VAT.