Fast Growing Mobile Market

Over the next few years, more people will use cell phones than desktop computers to search for information. Already, mobile devices are the best selling consumer device of all time, outpacing computer sales.

The race is on to win viewers on what is being termed the ‘third screen’ in our lives. First there was the TV screen, then the computer screen for the Internet, and now the mobile phone screen.

“Mobile could be the greatest media vehicle ever created, greater than even television...we are still only sitting on the precipice of a consumer opportunity no one has ever seen before." Peter Chernin, COO News Corp

LBS uses mobile to the fullest
LBS is to mobile, like the Internet was to the computer. This makes mobile applications easy to use and highly personalized. LBS is a different experience than the Internet from a desktop or tapping the Internet from a mobile phone.

In the 1970’s Professor Marshall McLuhan, came up with the phrase, “the medium is the message” to explain how people interact and react to the technology determines the success of the content. For example, as noted by Shawn and the rabble that blog about mobile: the television medium is characterized by watching programming pushed from a centralized source. In juxtaposition, the Internet introduced a new medium, where one interactively surfs millions of distributed sources. Now, with mobile combined with LBS, there is freedom of movement where users access and interact with proximal information from cell phones carried at the ready.

Until recently, all the pieces, such as LBS, have not been in place for mobile.
While most everyone has a cell phone, carriers have just begun to launch LBS and these services will take time to be properly imbedded in a carrier’s marketing, retail and customer service practices.

Mid-2007 probably sparks widespread mainstream LBS awareness. Sprint-Nextel and Verizon already launched LBS content mid-2006 and Cingular and T-Mobile should launch LBS in 2007. The initial 2006 LBS application launches were primarily in navigation and tracking, things GPS has been used for in the past. While these applications will post the early gains, these are core functionalities of other applications moving forward.

Today, we are seeing the ramp of mobile content (mobile data) and the emergence of LBS, with a lot of room to grow. Even more lucrative is mobile content that ties back into commerce activities. This is what Smarter Agent does better than anyone.