The Mobile POV from Experts at Digital Hollywood at CES

This is reposted from 360i's Digital Connections. 

 

While at the Consumer Electronics Show, I moderated a panel at Digital Hollywood on “Mobile Commerce and Content: The Mobile Web, Texting, Search, and Advertising Options.” As you can see, the panel covered a lot of ground, and I can’t begin to capture it all. But I did take some notes and I’ll share those here.

I need to thank my panelists here for all their insight, and I wish I could have done the session more justice, but look out for any of them as you’re guaranteed to learn a few things.

• Ali Rana, Vice President, Digital Strategy, Dynamic Logic
• Jamie Wells, Director, Global Trade Marketing, Microsoft Mobile Advertising
• Brian Johnson, Senior Vice President, Americas and Asia Pacific, mBlox
• Thomas Roberts, Chief Product Officer, Digital and Mobile Services, kgb
• Pooj Preena, CEO, Groupe Hi-Media USA;
• Greg Fawcett, co-founder, MobiAd Sales

Here are some of the questions covered during the session:

How is 2010 different from 2009 for mobile?

Apple and Google are now in it. Google couldn’t crack mobile alone so it needed AdMob, especially to get a presence in mobile apps along with broadening its reach i mobile display.

Google also made a major impact with Android. The first Android phone debuted in October 2008 and by the end of 2009 there were 20 Android phones on the market globally.

Mergers and acquisition activity overall was strong. One panelist noted, “These large bets were placed for a reason.” Expect a lot of consolidation ahead, especially with the glut of ad networks.

What’s the best mobile advertising model?

Mobile doesn’t have the corollary to search yet – that killer model. And search isn’t as seamless or useful on the phone. Some debate ensued as to how purposeful the consumer activity on mobile was to begin with, as one in particular felt activity skewed more toward time killing activities like casual gaming, while others saw more purposeful usage. My take: any killer model is going to have a heavy focus on local marketing, and that may well transcend search/display/video, web/apps/SMS, and other iterations.

What are challenges for micropayments?

Consumers still largely pay for ringtones, chat, and wallpaper. Carriers take a large chunk of micropayment transactions, as high as 30 to 60 percent. That’s fine for virtual goods with low overhead, but it doesn’t work as well for physical goods. iTunes has established itself in micropayments in a way that Google hasn’t with Google Checkout.

Watch out for Facebook here as it turns on mobile monetization. Its online monetization methods such as advertising and virtual gift payments don’t exist yet in mobile, but they’ll need to turn that on.

How important are all the handsets that aren’t smartphones?

Generally panelists were bullish on them and focus on such handsets, especially internationally in certain markets where smartphones lag far behind the U.S.

Thanks again to all the panelists who were far more eloquent on stage than I am here, but at least now a few others can get a taste of the session.