Welcome to this week’s Carnival of the Mobilists #221. It’s my first time hosting, and I’m glad to have this opportunity to showcase the best and brightest bloggers covering the mobile space. Thank you to all of the dedicated people who not only blog, but connect with one another to share ideas and introduce their readers to the work of our esteemed colleagues. Without further ado, here we go…

A new Mobile OS from Japan? It looks like it, according to Ajit Jaokar of Open Gardens. Read more at Good news for Japan but bad news for LiMo? Japanese phone makers to develop new operating system AND open it to the world.

Readers are given a cultural lesson on Chinese New Year gift-giving customs as the backdrop for the ‘missing million’ in iPhone sales. Tomi Ahonen explains, “Forecasters predicted over 1 million less iPhone sales (some even 2 million below) what actually happened. I was also wrong obviously as nobody saw the increase in sales for the after-Christmas quarter.” The mystery is solved, along with a lively debate in the comments section in Apple to thank Year of Tiger for China Surprise in iPhone strong quarterly sales on Communities Dominate Brands.

Payment via mobile phone are headed to countries that don’t already have it, and Simon Judge gives his top observations of the Mobile Monday London’s treatment of the subject in Mobile Money on MobilePhoneDevelopment.com. It looks like operators are concerned about liability while third party developers lead the way.

It’s clear from a number of posts this week that many mobile developers and mobile marketers are still coming to grips with mobile, especially when it comes to deciding whether to create apps for particular smartphones vs. mobile websites that can be viewed regardless of which phone or mobile device the audience is likely to have.

A shattered iPhone graces Mobsessed.co.uk’s Carl Martin’s post Evidence against the iPhone Mobsession. He argues that since there is a scant 4% iPhone ownership in the UK, money spent marketing iPhone apps would be put to better use on a mobile website. He backs up his rationale with a presentation by Ewan MacLeod of Mobile Industry Review. Elsewhere on his site this week, he marvels at a University student’s use of an iPhone adapted via WiFi to run a remote controlled car. Perhaps that iPhone money should go to R&D then, Carl? iPhone + Virtual Reality Headset + Wifi + REMOTE CONTROLLED CAR = WIN

The Carnival welcomes newcomer Helen Lynch of with a pair of articles with a corporate perspective from Amdocs. Are service providers ready for the smartphone revolution? and So Many Devices, So Little Time by Mike Couture. The articles are two sides of the same issue: people who buy smartphones and don’t know how to use them, and the difficulty companies have in supporting smartphone users in their call centers.

When considering mobile design, “accessible” needs to mean more than just accomodations for physical handicaps. Economic and technological differences must also figure into the equation. Belen Pena reminds us that most people accessing the internet – as much as 87% globally – are not using smartphones. There is a distinction between inclusive design and accessible design in Narrow mobile strategies are a terrible form of exclusive design.

James Coop details the difficulty of apps marketing in an ever-changing environment in Mobile marketing for the online casino industry – iphone, ipad or i dont know?. The article is focused on the casino industry, but the struggle to keep up with technology upgrades will be familiar to all.

Andy Favell of mobiThinking.com gives us the numbers on mobile this week, and ought to be required reading for all mobile marketers and decision-makers: Global mobile stats: all latest quality research on mobile Web and marketing in one place. Andy, too, reminds us that the mobile web is not just for smartphones:

Beware: there is a lot of misinformation about the market share of smartphones and some handsets in particular. This doesn’t matter if your mobile strategy targets all phone users equally, but if you are prioritizing one handset, you must know the facts.

Here’s the thumbnail version of this in-depth report:

1. Mobile subscribers will surpass 5 billion in 2010
2. Half a billion people accessed mobile Internet worldwide in 2009
3. By 2011, over 85 percent of new handsets will be able to access the mobile Web
4. The number of 3G handsets is growing fast
5. Mobile devices sales fell slightly in 2009, while smartphone sales showed strong growth albeit from a small base
6. Estimates for expenditure on mobile advertising and marketing worldwide ranged from US$1.4 billion to $7.5 billion in 2009, all analysts forecast rapid growth
7. How will consumers use their mobiles?
8. The top five mobile network operators worldwide that derive more of their revenue from data than other operators are all Asian

I throw my hat into the ring with Social Media: Playtime is Officially Over. Since social media is mobile, and concerns mobile marketers, brands and developers, the YouTube video is a very enlightening two minutes for people who think Twitter is just to tell people what you had for lunch. (It’s a little loud, you might like it better with the sound off.)

Finally, this week’s Carnival post of the week is awarded to a post with heart, announcing an initiative that will undoubtably change many lives for the better. Carnival of the Mobilists’ very own Peggy Anne Salz of MSearchGroove.com presents THE MOBILE MOVEMENT Launches, Brings Mobile To Non-Profits; MSG Joins Advisory Board. Here’s what the new initiative will do:

Our mission is to support non-profits by bringing mobile capabilities to non-profits, helping them to reach millions more people in need by leveraging mobile devices, networks and innovative applications they will create in partnership with social entrepreneurs.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to visit the links of our contributors to expand your knowledge of what’s going on in mobile today. To see a complete list of archives, or to submit your site in the future, please visit Mobili.st (not .com).

All the Best,
Holly Kolman

Founder, Editor & Publisher,
mobiEnthusiast.mobi

Holly Kolman on LinkedIn
@mobiEnthusiast on Twitter
mobiEnthusiast’s Facebook Page

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If you are interested at all in making websites, social media, analytics, trends, Wordpress, or just interesting tech reading in general, then do yourself a favor and become a regular reader of Mark Fulton’s work.

Mark runs Dotsauce Magazine, an industry website for people who invest in domain names. That’s a good website. However, the real value Mark brings to the table for people who are interested in the more mainstream aspects of internet and business marketing come from his @dotsauce Twitter posts (he has over 13.5K followers) and his Facebook account, where he has over 726 friends.

Mark is one of the most generous people on the internet today, sharing all the resources he finds along the way. This post is my way of saying “thank you” to him, and share this most valuable resource with readers of this blog.

Go friend or follow him now. You’ll be glad you did.

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Guest post from Mark Jaffe    www.mobilemandala.com

Back when I was dating, the cardinal rule was to never phone after the first date until at least three days had passed. The phone was too personal for such a quick contact and you could be seen as too aggressive or worse, too desperate.

Times have changed. Now it is OK to use your phone for contact immediately after the first date, provided you don’t speak into it. Texting something pithy or witty that night, or the following day, can often be viewed as a positive addition to the dating experience.

Now let’s move to the end of the relationship. Breaking up over the phone is not as good as breaking up in person, but not nearly as bad as – OMG! – breaking up via text. Same phone. Same message. Completely different level of cultural acceptability.

We respond to text messages faster than emails, and BBMs faster than texts. Same Phone. Same message. Same textual appearance. Different accepted practice.

It is OK to whip out the phone (among some dining parties) at a restaurant to perform certain tasks – like looking up a sticking point in the conversation – but not others, like answering an email or playing a game. Same phone. Same amount of time “away” from the conversation. Different effect on your friends.

The list goes on and on. What is it about the mobile phone that generates this long list of rules and practices that is not present on our other media?

The mobile phone is not “the third screen.” It is a very personal, interactive, communication ecosystem of which the screen is just one visual component. The mobile phone has developed, and is continually developing, behavioral mores and cultural norms that have very serious implications for marketers. Violate one of those norms, and the consequences can be severe.

Marketers who continue to treat the mobile phone as yet another screen to “repurpose content” or as a quick campaign add-on to “target a hard to reach audience”, do so at their peril. It will be the brands that actively leverage the behavioral use patterns of the mobile phone and their attendant cultural norms that will succeed.

Marshall McLuhan said “The medium is the message” and he couldn’t be more right as it pertains to the mobile phone. The emerging customs, lifestyle behaviors and prevailing standards associated with the use of the mobile phone are unique, real and significant.

When mobile-specific behavior and culture is taken into account, the mobile phone shines as a brilliant addition to a well crafted overall brand marketing strategy – witness AT&T and American Idol.

When ignored, it can have the potential to undo the hard earned trust of the very same brand. AT&T found that out when it violated customer privacy expectations by using the American Idol list. And worst of all, most of the customers who chose to break up with the AT&T brand as a result, didn’t even bother to inform them by sending a text.

This post is one of the ten reasons why mobile advertising has not reached its potential.  You can access the other nine at www.mobilemandala.com

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Holiday comparison shopping just got a lot easier thanks to Target.mobi. The American retailer’s mobile site offers a mobile-friendly browsing experience complete with pictures, item descriptions, and user reviews for what appears to be a full store inventory. While it does not provide a shopping cart, visitors can enter their mobile phone numbers to receive a text message for future reference of any items they wish to purchase. The target mobile site also includes a link to weekly store specials (searchable by zip code) and a holiday catalog.

Target’s mobile website is a good lesson for marketers, too. The full site address is http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile.jsp — quite a lot to type on a mobile phone — and by registering the .mobi name, they are offering a convenience to site visitors who only need to remember the store name (Target) and the mobile domain extension (.mobi).

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some shopping to do…

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DUBLIN, Ireland and WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ — dotMobi, the company behind the .mobi Internet domain designed to help consumers find content that works on mobile phones, today announced that more than one million .mobi domains have been registered since its launch two years ago.

From October 2006, dotMobi has seen continued growth in the amount of registrants as companies pursue the increased visibility and targeted marketing the mobile Web offers. Mobile content consumption is steadily growing while the lack of consistency and navigation issues that previously hampered mass consumer adoption are lessening.

In June 2008, dotMobi issued joint research with AKQA, a global creative agency. dotMobi found that 90 percent of respondents were interested in learning about the mobile Web. Brands and companies far and wide have turned to dotMobi for information on building and marketing mobile Web sites for consumers looking to access content while on the go.

Sites such as Nokia.mobi, Mercedes-Benz.mobi, Zagat.mobi and Bank of America’s BofA.mobi have been successfully promoted as custom, intuitive experiences for their users. These brands represent a small handful of the thousands of businesses who are embracing the mobile Web with sites across dozens of categories, including travel, automotive, consumer packaged goods, publishing and financial services.

The entertainment industry is also moving onto the mobile Web. Country music star Tim McGraw engages his audience via http://McGraw2go.mobi, where fans can download music samples, watch videos and keep tabs on the latest tour while followers of the Wu-Tang Clan can get the latest information about the group at http://wumusicgroup.mobi. Recent hit film Eagle Eye featured a special promotional “tie-in” site with US electronics retail giant Circuit City at http://ee.mydas.mobi as does the upcoming blockbuster James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, with Sony Australia at http://quantumcode.mobi.

Along with the .mobi domain, dotMobi as a company has continued to grow. To aid the expansion of the mobile Web, the company has created a wealth of free tools for developers, available at the mobiForge.com mobile web developer forum, which now boasts more than 20,000 members. Free resources such as the ready.mobi report and award-winning DeviceAtlas device database show business owners what they need to do to make their site successful with their customers on virtually every Web-enabled cell phone on the planet.

“dotMobi has established relevance, order – and now success – in what two years ago was a muddled, confusing mobile Web world,” said Trey Harvin, CEO of dotMobi. “With the mobile Web gaining speed, and .mobi paving the way, we are excited to soon unveil the next generation of mobile Web tools and resources that will assist small-to-medium businesses in utilizing the mobile Web to reach a new audience: the mobile consumer.”

Amy Mischler, dotMobi’s Vice President of Brand and Identity Service, added, “To help continue the phenomenal growth of the mobile Web, dotMobi is making 200 highly desired ‘premium’ .mobi domain names available via a special online auction with Sedo (computer link) beginning Nov. 5 and running through Nov. 12, 2008. These .mobi names include actors.mobi, bands.mobi, blackjack.mobi, boys.mobi, cellphones.mobi, dvd.mobi, dvr.mobi, games.mobi, model.mobi, racing.mobi, stamps.mobi, vip.mobi and xxx.mobi.”

About dotMobi

dotMobi (the informal name of mTLD Top Level Domain Ltd.), headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is leading the growth of Internet use from mobile phones with the .mobi domain name. Unique among domain name providers, dotMobi ensures that services and sites developed around .mobi are optimized for use by mobile devices, so that on-the-go consumers can have confidence that a Web site will work on their mobile phones when using a .mobi address.

dotMobi is backed by leading mobile operators, network & device manufacturers, and Internet content providers, including Ericsson, GSM Association, Hutchison 3, Microsoft, Nokia, Orascom Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Syniverse, T-Mobile, Telefonica Moviles, TIM, Visa and Vodafone.

For more information on dotMobi domains and registration information, visit http://dotmobi.mobi. Visit the dotMobi blog at http://blog.mobi.

Click to call links (below) are enabled for mobile phones only, not computers.

     For more information, please contact:

     Vance Hedderel

     dotMobi

     +1-703-485-5563

     vhedderel@mtld.mobi

     Danielle Siemon

     Edelman for dotMobi (U.S.)

     +1-650-762-2947

     danielle.siemon@edelman.com
     Sasha Manners

     Edelman for dotMobi (Europe)

     +44-(0)20-7344-1200

     sasha.manners@edelman.com


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From LinkedIn (computer link):

“Anyone know a good, reliable iPhone-iPodTouch developer I can hire? We’re a branding/marketing outfit that has an Apple AppStore product spec’d out, ready to go. The only missing member of our team is the developer! If you’re an Apple Developer with experience with the iPhone?iPod Touch SDK and have written/sold a product through the AppStore, we’d love to work with you. If you haven’t sold anything through the AppStore, this could be your first success. We want a programmer that’s efficient, reliable and creative. This is a project for hire, unless you’d like to participate in the revenue. That’s always an option. You can check us out at (computer only link) robfrankel.com, where fun is good, but making money is even better.”

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Twitter is a wonderful thing. I found a website called Branding Strategy Insider (link below) today thanks to Jay D. Ehret’s twitter microblog. Jay has a marketing blog called The Marketing Spot over on Blogspot. Here’s the computer link to The Marketing Spot and the mobile link to The Marketing Spot. Check out his blog if you are interested in marketing – it’s a good read. But I digress…

The main reason for my post today is to alert mobile web designers to something many brand managers have known all along – colors have meaning. According to Branding Strategy Insider, “You’d be wise to consider the psychology of color when designing your marketing materials. Be it business card, brochure, web site, posters or other material, you’ll be making color choices. Colors not only enhance the appearance of the item — they also influence our behavior. You will do well to consider the impact that the colors you use will have on your target audience.” Read the rest at Branding Strategy Insider (mobile link) (computer link) .

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.mobi Awareness Campaign Is Coming to Mobile Websites Near You

Mtld, the dotMobi Registry, awarded Why.mobi to the mobility.mobi forum under the leadership of Andres Kello, a leading dot mobi proponant and premium domain name portfolio owner. Why.mobi was created by forum members to demonstrate the benefits of using domain names ending in .mobi for mobile websites, as opposed to subdomains on .com sites.  The name was awarded via the RFP proposal process. Dot mobi sites are designed to be smaller and load faster than other sites, and can be viewed on iPhones without zooming and scrolling.  Their small size and low bandwidth requirements also makes them perfect for BlackBerry, Nokia and other mobile phones. Mobility members who participated in building the project include:

• Andres Kello
• Scandiman
• vcool
• Ehsan
• Tim
• Mark Benett
• DomainTalker
• KW Boswell
• Gerry
• Marc Zwygart
• miellas
• namelot
• GeMulder
• Chris Kang
• Holly Kolman
• pureyogi/pureyogini58
• Tom Hinks
• gogo
• blitzpot

Congratulations on a site well done and we look forward to seeing it on .mobi websites everywhere!

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