Smart Phones set to take over ‘conventional’ Mobile Phones during this decade even in Malta

Article by Ray de bono, CEO - Dmax

Marketers the world over are always on the lookout for intelligent marketing media that give them the edge over competition. The holy grail of marketing is a cost-effective medium offering high ROI, real-time statistical data and the capacity to narrow down or broaden reach of target audience at will. The way technology is evolving right now, the much desired solution may very much literally already be in our own hands…

According to a Deloitte Report of Technologies published in 2010, the Growth in demand for smart phones - devices boasting powerful processors, abundant memories, large screens and open operating systems - has outpaced the rest of the mobile phone market for several years.Already in 2008, smart phone sales increased by almost 35 percent, while the market as a whole grew 10 percent. By year-end, smart phones had taken 13 percent of the total handset market.

Operators need data traffic growth to offset declining margins for voice and SMS services. They should work with handset makers to ensure that feature phones do not compromise data usage.Smartphones will make up over half of Asian mobile phone sales by 2015, with 477 million units likely to be sold, according to an industry report published online.Consultancy Frost and Sullivan (2010) said smartphones would account for 54 per cent of the Asia-Pacific mobile market in five years, up sharply from five per cent in 2009.

What about here in Malta? Vodafone figures published in August 2010 indicate that BlackBerry devices outpace sales of any other smartphone (mainly iphones and other brands like Samsung) on the Maltese market. Vodafone launched the BlackBerry service in Malta two years ago. This company currently offers the BlackBerry Curve 8520 handset for EUR 270 without contract. The Curve 8520 is also available free of charge in combination with a two-year contract for a Vodafone tariff plan (source: DMEUROPE via COMTEX News Network).

What does this trend mean to ethical marketers? Smartphones offer a new frontier for ethical marketing companies to channel advertising via email, as an alternative to the flat, costly and much-hated SMS promos. Smartphones allow emails to be sent, received and stored, parallel with one’s home or office service. Many software applications, traditionally accessible only via conventional PC’s, such as Word, Excel, including major media players are available on most smartphones, making file sharing and management easy and more versatile than ever before.

Contrary to popular belief, smartphones are not the sole dominion of business people. Students and users from all walks of life, trades and professions are increasingly opting for smartphones (often preferred over laptops) since these handy gadgets allow them to access the internet from anywhere, giving them freedom and helping make their life easier. Now imagine being able to send emails to people on your contact list and that they can receive your mail wherever they are. Imagine you can send branded emails, emails with design, images and even video.

Marketers all over the world are discovering that email is an inexpensive, personalized, effective, traceable medium for PR and publicity, seriously rivaling traditional media like TV, print media and radio.

The question is how best to maximize this medium. Will you use your email account as the sender? But how can you efficiently send 1,000 emails or more via Outlook or Gmail? How can you do this in a personalized way (Dear John, Jack, Jill...) without wasting a whole morning? A solution is needed that allows one to create, send and TRACK emails.

Such solutions providing email marketing exist. Dmaxepaper.com is a leading, smart email marketing option available so far in English and German. Dmaxepaper, with its operations based in Malta (EU) offers advanced real-time statistics, compatibility with leading email clients (including Blackberry and iphone) and inbuilt anti-spam modules. Dmaxepaper.com is used by clients such Audi, VW and Coca Cola, amongst others. Read more here: http://www.dmaxepaper.com/product%20evaluation.html

Welcome to 'permission marketing'…

This new marketing medium comes with it set of rules, some of which are also sanctioned by law in the EU and US. These laws are set to protect us all from people who abuse of this medium. Nobody enjoys having his inbox full of spam. So marketers, for instance, must ensure recipients authorize the sender to send them the email marketing (being it a text only or image rich newsletter).

This brave new world is called ‘permission marketing’, and this new ‘channel’ requires that such campaigns must include an opt out, which must be easy to execute, therefore safeguarding one’s right to unsubscribe at any point in time from receiving unwanted emails. As with all media one has to be courteous and exercise all care to avoid bothering contacts with too many emails, for instance. Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permission_marketing Read more about email marketing here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_marketing