txt? 2right m8 :-)

It is very interesting that text is still very much on the agenda when consumers are asked as to what they want to do with mobile technology. According to Ofcom’s latest study of consumer’s ‘digital’ habits, the regulator found that the average UK consumer now sends 50 texts per week – which has more than doubled in four years – with over 150 billion text messages sent in 2011.

Almost another ninety minutes per week is spent accessing social networking sites and e-mail, or using a mobile to access the internet, while for the first time ever fewer phone calls are being made on both fixed and mobile phones.

Teenagers and young adults are leading these changes, increasingly socialising with friends and family online and through text messages despite saying they prefer to talk face to face.

According to Ofcom’s Communications Market Report 2012, 96% of 16-24s are using some form of text based application on a daily basis to communicate with friends and family; with 90% using texts and nearly three quarters (73%) using social networking sites.

By comparison, talking on the phone is less popular among this younger age group, with 67% making mobile phone calls on a daily basis, and only 63% talking face to face.

The report shows that traditional forms of communications are declining in popularity, with the overall time spent on the phone falling by 5% in 2011. This reflects a 10% fall in the volume of calls from landlines, and for the first time ever, a fall in the volume of mobile calls (by just over 1%) in 2011.

These changes in communication habits reflect the rapid increase in ownership of internet-connected devices, such as tablets and smartphones – making access to web-based communications easier.

This shift away from calling marks a significant move in the world of communications. The dream of voice transmission over vast distances has been supplanted by the written word. As our feature this month points out, messaging of all sorts is very much the way the kids (and some adults) like to correspond, be that social, IM, BBM, whatsapp or good ole text.

And that plays very much to the strengths of telemedia, which while its pedigree is in voice calls, has over the past decade harnessed the power of text. And this is something that is set to be a key theme at the forthcoming WORLD TELEMEDIA show in Marbella on 17-19 October. While the show aims to look at the business opportunities around interactive media, marketing, commerce and retail (as well as the latest developments within the telemedia business itself), text is, I suspect, going to feature quite highly.

There is a lot of really cool smartphone and tablet technology out there, but text works and it works for everyone. While judging several categories of the Meffy Awards this month, the role of simple text services to enable m-commerce for the vast majority of people has become clear. I can’t give away any of the details, but I have been surprised at how a lot of the innovation and moreover the successful services entered into the awards this year have used text to let the widest possible number of consumers into the m-commerce world.

This is vital. M-commerce has huge potential to shake up the way all businesses operate, but to do so it has to reach the most people out there and text really does offer that reach. Engaging everyone is becoming the theme of the m-commerce space and WORLD TELEMEDIA MARBELLA is going to showcase how this can be achieved – and point to how sometimes it's the innovative use of existing technology that really holds the key to opening up new markets.

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Messages very much not in a bottle

Last week, Ofcom released its report into how people use all things digital and revealed that in the UK consumers use text, mobile email and social networks more than they make phone calls to keep in touch with friends and family. In fact, only 47% use voice calls on the mobiles.

The average UK consumer now sends 50 texts per week – which has more than doubled in four years – with over 150 billion text messages sent in 2011. Almost another ninety minutes per week is spent accessing social networking sites and e-mail, or using a mobile to access the internet, while for the first time ever fewer phone calls are being made on both fixed and mobile phones.

Teenagers and young adults are leading these changes, increasingly socialising with friends and family online and through text messages despite saying they prefer to talk face to face.

According to Ofcom’s Communications Market Report 2012, 96% of 16-24s are using some form of text based application on a daily basis to communicate with friends and family; with 90% using texts and nearly three quarters (73%) using social networking sites.

By comparison, talking on the phone is less popular among this younger age group, with 67% making mobile phone calls on a daily basis, and only 63% talking face to face.

The report shows that traditional forms of communications are declining in popularity, with the overall time spent on the phone falling by 5% in 2011. This reflects a 10% fall in the volume of calls from landlines, and for the first time ever, a fall in the volume of mobile calls (by just over 1%) in 2011.

These changes in communication habits reflect the rapid increase in ownership of internet-connected devices, such as tablets and smartphones – making access to web-based communications easier.

To anyone who has wondered around any town or city in the UK this can come as no real surprise. Most people I know now only communicate with me via social media (are they trying to tell me something?) and I use text pretty much all the time (and by that I also mean iOS IM, whatsapp and so on…) to keep in touch and make arrangements with family, friends and loved ones. In fact it is only really my cat that I actually talk to these days, purely because he insists on using BBM and I’m on iPhone.

But this shift to messaging rather than talking is a boon to the industry – and presents a massive opportunity. Consumers are increasingly engaged now with social and messaging via mobile and in many ways treat these very differently to how they treated voice calls in the past: there is a certain degree of laissez faire around what they will and won’t share.

This provides a great opportunity to communicate in a much more engaged and personal way as a business and, with a few simple rules of thumb, is set to revolutionise marketing and customer engagement.

But it isn’t happening. Textlocal, the UK’s leading business mobile messaging company, states that there is still work to be done to educate businesses to communicate with their audiences in this way.

Alastair Shortland CEO of Textlocal explains: “Our own research indicates that many businesses are aware of mobile messaging, but there are still some who are yet to tap into the full potential of how powerful it can be as a business driver. We know that, whether businesses have a mobile strategy or not, there will always be a place for opt-in bulk SMS within the marketing mix, as a personal communication tool, sales or promotion tool or simply to send alerts and updates. Texting leads the way in fast, low-cost, direct conversations with consumers.”

Textlocal believe that mobile messaging is based on trust and permission. Their online system ‘Messenger’ enables any businesses to grow opt-in lists of customer data and intelligence and to text from PC, targeted communications directly the palms of customer’s hands. This powerful blend of design, usability and technology has been commended for being cost-effective, quick and proven to deliver results.

The fact that Ofcom have reported that text is on the rise, suggests that people want to communicate on the fly. Smart businesses give the customers what they want, while Textlocal provide those businesses with the tools to reach thousands of people instantly from one central place, managing responses and opening up long-term conversations and relationships. After all, isn’t texting about convenience, speed and that personal touch that no other medium offers?

READ MORE ABOUT THE IMPACT OF MESSAGING IN TELEMEDIA MONTH ONLINE FROM 31 JULY

PRS booming, but bad news for networks

What did the O2 customer say to his friend? Nothing. Hopefully its a happy Friday for all you O2 users who lost connectivity this week. Hopefully everyone is back on line. What it shows is how reliant we are on mobile networks for our everyday lives. It also doesn’t bode well for O2’s much trumped 4G roll out. The outage comes hot on the heals of a nine hour breakdown of Orange France’s network in France last week. Ho hum.

Askar Sheibani, CEO of IT and telecoms repair company, Comtek, sums it up well: “O2 has failed to deliver a basic service to its customers in the past few no basic call connectivity nor the ability to send text messages. To have an entire network down is a poor show for the company, and does not bode well for an operator who plans to deliver 4G services in a year’s time. Mobile phones are an increasingly essential part of day-to-day life for consumers and businesses alike, and incidents such as this are simply un-acceptable.  This failure to deliver basic 2G and 3G services, indicates that O2 may have taken its eye off the ball – ignoring the maintenance of its existing service in the rush to deliver 4G.

“For too many businesses, simple practices such as repairing and maintaining existing technology gets overlooked, in favour of newer fads.  Unfortunately this ‘throw-away’ culture is not just wasteful and inefficient, but it is also detrimental to the service the consumer receives – as O2 customers have witnessed in the past 24 hours. Investing in innovation and developing new technologies is, of course, worthwhile; but it is absolutely paramount that companies continue to deliver the level of service which existing customers are paying for and relying upon.  Whilst O2 has paid the price this time round, other network providers following a similar path would do well to take heed of the warning signs, and ensure their existing infrastructure is up to scratch.”

Quite. Take note network operators.

But while this is bad news for MNOs, there is better news, however, for the premium rate industry with PhonePay Plus finding that the UK is the hub of the international PRS business, with consumers spending more per head on such services than anywhere else and with many international companies basing themselves here in the UK.

PhonepayPlus’ annual market review – Current & Future Market for PRS 2011 – published this week underlines how sophisticated and successful the UK PRS sector has become.

In its Annual Report 2011/12, PhonepayPlus, UK regulator of PRS, reveals figures for the first ever PRS industry-wide Registration Scheme. Out of almost 4,000 registered providers, 14% have headquarters located overseas, with providers based in 75 countries including Australia, Russia, China, India, Nigeria, Argentina and the USA.

The attractiveness of the UK PRS market for international providers and investment is underlined by research published in 2011 by PhonepayPlus that shows while the average global PRS revenue per capita (based on 20 bench-marked countries) was 4.57USD, in the UK it is 18.70USD. PhonepayPlus’ annual market review, Current & Future Market for PRS 2011, shows that some providers are capitalising on the ‘borderless’ reach of global sites, such as Facebook, by facilitating mobile payments across a range of international markets. In addition, many UK mobile aggregators are now part of international consortia.

And this is not only good news for the telemedia industry, but shows that there is still a great role for PRS to play in consumer’s everyday lives. While the usual premium rate services continue to generate revenues, the growth in digital interaction, entertainment, commerce and retail are all set to drive even more growth in the PRS sector – if we get it right. The borderless nature of mobile payments on sites such as Facebook and other social media is also offering a great and growing opportunity, especially for the youth market.

This growth in spending via global social media sites and the like is seeing mobile payments boom much as online payment tools – and later mobile pSMS did – around online adult services.

But today the opportunity is very much in the global mainstream and, as such, offers a vast potential revenue source. Using mobile as an easy way for the unbanked to buy through social sites – and commerce sites – quickly and easily is one opportunity. Extending this to more traditional retail is very encouraging.

There is no shortage of mobile payment offerings around, but this increasing keenness among consumers to use PRS for digital and entertainment services offers a huge advantage for retail and commerce. While no one technology for mobile payments has moved into poll position, PRS continues to be grow, as witnesses by the PPP study.

And this is something to rejoice. While PRS revenues always go up during a downturn – driven by the desire to be entertained out of the prevailing gloom, but not wanting to spend too much money – the growing use of PRS to pay for everything from entertainment to media, to goods and services, through social media or through ‘normal’ sites shows that the growth is something much more organic and needs to be capitalized on. So, tell your friends in the industry (except those on O2, they won’t get the call or the text) and we can see these PRS figures rise further still.

But with this good news come some words of caution. While an increasingly globalised and digitised mobile market place opens up new opportunities for business, consumers and the UK digital economy, it also poses new challenges for regulation that has to operate across borders. In December 2011, PhonepayPlus launched an investigation into the operation in the UK market of a particular premium rate malware that was active in 18 countries. The regulator subsequently took robust action to ensure that the malware could no longer operate through a premium rate mechanism and that those responsible for the fraud did not profit from UK consumers.

With an increasingly globalised digital market place comes the increased potential for fraud that operates across borders and in a number of countries simultaneously. Acting to understand and pre-empt such activity, PhonepayPlus will lead discussion about regulation in international markets when it hosts a summit of international regulators in October 2012.

Paul Whiteing, PhonepayPlus’ Chief Executive, says: “When we look at the map of PRS providers active in the UK market, we see a picture of a market that is increasingly global. However, this is a picture still in formation and the opportunities for the UK to lead the way in m-commerce and digital micropayments, such as PRS, are significant. To realise this potential, we need to ensure regulation remains fit for purpose, allowing business innovation to flourish while robustly protecting consumers. We need to do this with an eye, not just to the domestic market, but to a digital economy that is global and indifferent towards state borders.”

UK consumers lead the way in smartphone use, but SMEs getting left behind in capitalising on this

The UK is the most advanced nation in world at using smartphones, using it for everything from keeping in touch with family to doing sophisticated price comparisons and buying things when in shops, finds a study by Ghent-based analysts InSites Consulting. And UK consumers are increasingly adept at using their mobiles while doing other things: 68% use their smartphone while shopping, 48% while watching TV and 34% while sitting on the toilet.

The UK leads the pack with 89% of smartphone owners having a data connection (though it does beg the question, what are the other 11% doing with a smartphone?) and this makes the UK the most mature and sophisticated mobile market assessed by InSite.

Elias Veris, Mobile expert at InSites Consulting explains: “Although on the European mainland the Netherlands are often seen as thé example for smartphone usage, we see that on the mobile front the UK is even more advanced. This is reflected in the number of data connections, but also in the fact that the US and the UK make more use of options such as in-store searching for the competitors’ pricing.”

Staying in touch with friends and family is the traditional motive for using a mobile phone (74%). Those remain the main motives for smartphone users, which is also reflected in the high level of usage of social media applications. Added to that are 2 more typical usage motives: first of all 64% of smartphone users admit that a motive is making one’s life easier by having access to information (e.g. online, but also by constantly having access to one’s agenda); and the second motive is entertainment, e.g. at moment when one is waiting for something.

All this – well maybe not the toilet part – shows what a huge opportunity for any business mobile actually is. The fact that using mobile while shopping comes out so high, shows that mobile commerce, and mobile retail in particular, have really grasped the public’s imagination and, with 64% saying they use a phone for all these data apps because it makes their lives easier, it is surprising that more isn’t done to tap into the market.

Another study, by MoPowered, finds that 89% of small retailers really want to get going with mobile to sate this growing need, yet only a quarter of them have done anything about it. Why? Well they are stymied by the lack of knowledge and information around how to actually do it.

While this pertains purely to the retail sector, I think the lessons can be extrapolated back into any vertical market. While the big players get it – and have pockets deep enough to try it and sometimes get it wrong – smaller businesses, which make up the vast majority of commercial organisations, can’t take that risk. And while they are in the dark about how to do it, they are losing business and pissing off all those consumers who want to buy and interact with them (though pissing the ones off that are sitting on the bog is probably not such a big deal, they are after all ideally placed to be pissed off, if I may be so crude).

What the InSite study reveals is that consumers want an easy life, and want to be entertained while they are doing other things. Of course, the telemedia industry – and telemedia-news and all our products – have long recognised this and we spend the vast majority of our time showing businesses how to make this happen. But they are typically the big boys and girls out there. What of the smaller businesses?

As the world moves away from PCs towards smartphones and tablets – which may well happen quicker that we think: Microsoft’s Surface is here, kindle has sold millions of Fires in the US, Google is putting out a £159 7inch tab later this month and now Apple is pretty certain to be launching iPad Mini towards year end – the way consumers interact with businesses is going to be significantly different from the ‘old’ internet model.

In many cases the PC is still the preferred device: for e-mailing, for surfing, for working and for social networking. But this preference is not always reflected by the actual behaviour: in many cases the smartphone is the only available appliance, so that is the one which is used.

“Users estimate that at least 5% of the time they currently spend on computer and laptop will go to smartphones and tablets in the near future,” says Veris. “I personally think it will be a lot more; at home the tablet will claim a lot more time, and on the road the smartphone will do the same.”

But how do businesses that want to engage with consumers this way actually make it happen? Sure much of the back end is the same, but the experience and, moreover, the payment/purchase side is going to be crucial. Making it simple, affordable and easy to do for small commercial entities is where I believe the real telemedia in m-commerce opportunity lies. And the businesses that want it need our help to make it happen.

At a time of economic uncertainty – not to mention a time of crooks being finally unmasked in banks – everyone needs to get on board with m-commerce and it is up to us, as an industry, to make it happen.