What do I mean, by ‘next four billion’? discusses the inevitability of >100% mobile penetration worldwide. Exciting times. The impact of mobile in the developing world has been immense. The short of it is that mobile, not WiFi, laptops, school buildings, micro-financing (despite received wisdom) will bring the largest number of people out of poverty, by facilitating transactions, giving access to grain prices, mobile banking (here and here and here and here) and more (PDF here).
From The New Yorker (Shouts & Murmurs), on social media, Subject: Our Marketing Plan. Reëducational.
Getting out of the building is a lesson for Langley. Customer development isn’t just for startups.
We’re making waiting in a hospital or doctor’s office less painful. Here are some other companies using technology to solve problems in the healthcare space: Start-Ups Aim to Transform Visits to the Doctor (from the Times’ blog).
Chris Dixon cites SMS in What’s the relationship between cost and price?:
People who gripe about the price/cost gap of SMS messages seem to not realize the telecom industry is like the movie industry in that they make huge upfront investments but have relatively low marginal costs. I, for one, have always thought movies are a great deal – they spend $100M making a movie, I pay $12 to see it. It would be silly to compare how much you pay to see a movie to the variable cost of projecting the movie.
I would add to this that messaging providers like us (the royal Us) and consumers (uh, like the regular us) of SMS pay for delivery and convenience. It’s a push system with a huge reach, not a dumb pipe which is valued strictly in terms of speed, capacity or latency. And it happens to be the preferred means of communication for many people. I’d liken SMS to a mail carrier insisting on flat rate shipping, but promising to have it in your recipient’s hand the same day, wherever they are. Or, try one of the alternatives: they’re free or variable price, maybe you can stuff more in the box, but they’ll get to your recipient at the office, or at their home, or at and old address, maybe today, maybe in a week.
But yeah, we still pay way too much for messaging – if only real competition existed between the carriers.
Though I’m generally averse to roundups, Smashing Magazine always delivers quality. Check out their collection of iPhone App Design Trends.
From Mobile Marketer, Jiffy Lube mobile campaign claimed to best online counterpart – 28% response rate and 10% redemption rate. At the end of the piece are some good, if common-sense, tips for optimizing SMS advertising.
For those of you with iPhone apps, here’s How We Jumped 50 Places in the App Store – for Free from the makers of Gymfu.
An esoteric question: Which Technology is Better: GSM or CDMA?
Aside:
- How did Paul Krugman get it so Wrong?
- The History of Management Consulting
- Malcolm Gladwell on IQ
- Jupiter’s Moon Europa Has Enough Oxygen For Life