Guides

Predictions in the world of telecommunications

The auditing and consulting company Deloitte has just published an in-depth report outlining predictions for 2012 in the areas of Technology, Media and Telecommunications.

One of the main reported findings concerns an explosion of the market for smartphones costing less than $100. According to the predictions, over 500 Million of them will be in use before the end of 2012. These figures are based on the consumer definition of a smartphone, rather than the technical one. Studies reveal that users are likely to call a mobile phone a “smartphone” device if it comes equipped with a touch screen or a full keypad, as opposed to categorising the phones according to their operating system.

Deloitte expects 300 million of these lower-priced smartphones to be sold in 2012, representing up to 20% of the entire mobile phone business. They cover the same market segment as netbooks, targeting users who require internet access without needing the graphics and range of functions offered by traditional laptop computers.

$100 Smartphones are likely to be particularly attractive in emerging markets. They generally support e-mail and messaging, feature a camera of at least 2MP and come with a selection of pre-loaded applications and widgets.

NFC (near field communications) enabled devices are also going to conquer a large share of the market. Up to 200 million of them could be sold in 2012, and the figure is likely to climb further in 2013. NFC is particularly valued for the distance payment possibilities it offers, and it opens up the door for the concept of “digital wallet” to develop.

Unsurprisingly, the global demand for consumer technology will increase this year. People rarely deliberately quantify value for money at the time of purchase, but they generally are conscious of how much a mobile device will be used.

Based on this criteria, consumer technology fairs particularly well: a $500 tablet will be used 350-700 hours a year, meaning the hourly cost of use can be evaluated as low as $0.70… against approximately $10 for a car! For mobile phones, the cost is even lower. With approximately 200,000 text messages being sent every second in the world, consumers are getting an excellent return on investment.

Top 5 reasons businesses choose SMS over email

For businesses, reaching a target market in a quick and effective way is a top priority. There are all kinds of ways that a business can reach its target market, but some are more effective than others.  So what are top reasons for businesses choosing SMS over email?

1. Spam emails are being delivered across both personal and work email networks on an increasingly regular basis. Research has shown that 90% of all emails are spam compared with 1% of text messages (Mobile Marketing Association 2009). Many people also find that important emails sometimes slip through the net and end up in their junk folder. As a result, many businesses are turning to SMS messaging to avoid being filtered out as junk and to send and receive important messages more effectively.
2. SMS is more widely read than email, 22% of all emails are opened compared to 98% of text messages (Frost & Sullivan 2010).
3. Emails are perceived as being free when they’re not, when sending from email marketing platforms, they cost a similar price to SMS messages. However when you take into account how many emails are actually opened; they are considerably more expensive than SMS.
4. We’re all attached to our mobile phones, most of the time.  SMS there enables you to reach the right person at the right time with the right message, all at low cost.
5. SMS messaging is the most used data service in the world, with most people on the planet sending text messages. There are more people sending SMS than the number of people who use Facebook or Google, and those who send and receive emails.

If you’re thinking about sending SMS take a look at our business SMS and the law document. This will guide you through the responsibility for sending SMS, to ensure they are not considered as spam.

Will you be sending a Merry Text-mas?

With mobile phone technology continuing to advance at a rapid pace, Christmas cheer is set to become more widespread than ever before as Telstra expect festive text messages to reach a figure of  more than 99 million across Australia.

According to Telstra research the first thing many of us do Christmas morning is send text messages of goodwill to family and friends – even before opening presents from under the tree.

Our Christmas habits are dominated by the power of texting, with mobile users across the globe expected to swap festive greetings in this way as the big day approaches.

If you’ve missed the Christmas post and not sent your Christmas cards yet then why not send an SMS instead – It’s cheaper, quicker and more likely to be read. Or if you’ve got staff working over the festive period or Christmas Day then why not send them a quick thank you.

The 12 best SMS campaign tactics for 2012

According to a report from the Australian Marketing Institute, almost 40% of Australian marketing executives are expecting their marketing budgets to grow in 2012, with advertising campaigns targeted at mobile devices.

The report states that 46% of marketers are doing more marketing via mobile and SMS, up from 34% in 2009. The survey shows enormous potential for mobile marketing in 2012.

The obstacles of mobile marketing continue to grow, QR codes have not become standard on mobile phones (and probably never will)  and then there are the low-reach technological innovations such as location-based “check-ins”, apps, mobile websites, mobile payments and more!  Most campaigns haven’t moved away from the simplicity of the text message.

With this in mind, what are the 12 best SMS campaign tactics to take into consideration for 2012?

1.  SMS Sender ID – By making it clear who the message is from, the receiver is aware that it is a legitimate message and can see this before they open the message.

2. Call to action – The text in your SMS that invites someone to respond.

3. SMS action plan – What will you do when you get a response? Send another SMS?

4. Personal context – Using a personal writing style such as “we” and “you”.

5. Know your Audience – By understanding your demographic you won’t offend. If you’re sending an SMS to the elderly don’t use modern day “text talk” or you could choose to send Voice SMS.

6. Personal significance – The receiver needs to be able to understand “why have you text my mobile phone?” As a rule of thumb, ensure the receiver is able to opt-out of your message.

7. SMS appeal – What’s in it for me? What’s in it for person who you are sending the message to?

8. Minimalism – Can your message be easily understood?

9. Hyperlink – Got a lot to say and texting smart phone users?  Then why not think about an integrated approach and include a hyperlink in your text, directing the receiver to a webpage. This is becoming increasingly more popular with the large number of smart phone users.

10. Viral content – Include a deal to encourage recipients to pass your SMS onto their friends and family – spread your SMS much further than your database list.

11.  Choose the right time to send – Not too early, not too late – If you’re targeting Saturday shoppers, ensure the message if received before they have started planning their day.

12. Choose the right SMS provider – Make sure that your SMS supplier delivers your messages quickly, so the messages are received when you want them to land. Do your research when choosing an SMS provider because some aggregators have message delays, making messages arrive in the middle of the night – causing annoyance.

Email SMS, Email to SMS, SMS from Email – What does it all mean?

In an age when businesses are constantly expanding or relocating staff to different areas in order to seek growth, they have to come up with effective ways to communicate with one another.

You may have offices in cities such as Tokyo, London and Brisbane. You may also have a fleet of vehicles constantly on the move in those cities. If this is the case, the idea of using Email SMS services could revolutionise the way in which your business is run.

In its simplest terms, Email to SMS means that messages are sent via email, but delivered as texts. SMS responses will subsequently be received as emails.

This means that organising a large group of staff who may be constantly on the move, but still need to communicate efficiently, can be made a great deal easier by introducing SMS from Email.

It is also worth noting that not everyone in a business will have constant internet access. Email itself is by far and away the most popular and effective way for colleagues to communicate with each other throughout the world.

However, for a variety of reasons, all of these people cannot have internet access all of the time. From this point of view, Email SMS is a very useful substitute for basic email.

Another consideration is that integrating Email SMS to an existing system is not a complex process. When using the system, it is simply a case of adding a different suffix to an email address so that it is sent as an SMS instead of an email.

The world of technology within business is constantly evolving and right at the heart of this evolution is the way in which business professionals communicate with each other.

SMS from email is one of the most popular, and most effective, business communication solutions.

WA State Government consider SMS alerts over shark threats

In the wake of three fatal shark attacks within the last two months, the State Government in Western Australia are considering the idea of establishing a ‘shark hotline’ which will allow people the chance to send SMS alerts about shark attacks or sightings.

Local residents made their feelings on the matter very clear at a public forum in Busselton last week. Fisheries Department Chief Executive Stuart Smith has since responded to the calls from a concerned public.

“We are interested in developing a system that works best for our purposes,” said Mr Smith. “We will evaluate the effectiveness of the current alerts in place and use something similar or build an entirely new system.”

Smith said that he and his officers were considering a system which would be quite similar to the one which was established by the Fire and Emergency Services Authority in the area.

That particular system was designed to warn people who live in ‘at-risk’ areas about potentially threatening bushfires.

Norman Moore, the Fisheries Minister, was cautious but open to discussion on the subject when speaking to The Sunday Times recently.

“Such an option would usually prove useful to alert people of sightings when they were out of the water. However, if the research advice indicates it could be a viable and cost effective shark mitigation tool, the State Government will consider it among any other options identified by the review,” Mr. Moore stated.

The idea is certainly a very original use of an SMS service, and may prove useful if there was evidence that the spate of recent attacks was set to continue.

Professor Shaun Collin, from the University of Western Australia’s Oceans Institute, accepted the merits of an SMS alert system, but also suggested that education on the issue of sharks is extremely important.

“Since there is so little known about sharks, their movement patterns and the influences of environmental cues on their behaviour, the Government could consider funding more focused research,” said Prof Collin.

It’s 30 years since Australia’s first mobile phone call

Nearly everyone in Australia has a mobile phone these days. However, the first mobile phone in Australia in is only 30 years old.

The popular mobile device first emerged in Australia in 1981.  The first call was made on the country’s first mobile network – Telstra’s new Public Automatic Telephone System.

At that time Telestra was known as Telecom, and the car handset device from where they made that very first call had a very straightforward name, simply – The Mobile Phone.

What was the first mobile phone like?

The first mobile phone weighed a hefty 14kg and consisted of a 45cm handset, a receiver stored in the boot of the car and an antenna on the roof: hardly what we’d refer to as a mobile phone today.

Only the most well off Australians could afford it, as it cost $5,000. Although the phone was big, it didn’t have much memory; it was able to store only a maximum of 16 numbers. Obviously, sending an SMS with the device was unimaginable at the time.

Unlike today’s mobile phones complete with MP3 players and hundreds of different call settings, the Telstra mobile phone alerted drivers of incoming calls by automatically honking the horn and flashing the headlights!

Before and after

When the first commercially-available hand-held mobile appeared in 1983, phone coverage was limited to three mobile base stations in the greater Melbourne area and only 1000 people could use it at once.

Much has changed since then. Today the Telstra network has more than 7400 base stations across Australia and 11 million users benefit from its service. SMS services and mobile internet were a revolution when they arrived…..who knows what the future will bring.

The great debate: Samsung vs Apple iPhone 4S

The on-going battle between tech giants Samsung Electronics and Apple deepened over the last few days when Samsung moved to embargo sales of the new iPhone 4S in Australia.

The legal dispute over phone similarities comes after a court in Australia temporarily banned sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 earlier this year.

The South Korean manufacturer has previously made attempts to embargo the new Apple smartphone in France and Italy, claiming patent infringement.

The two companies have been involved in a legal dispute over smartphone and tablet designs since April when Apple sued Samsung for allegedly copying iPhone and iPad models.

Whilst both parties make counter claims, however, Apple appear to be holding the upper hand having previously won pleas to ban the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany.

A statement by Samsung said, “Apple has continued to violate our patent rights and free ride on our technology. We will no longer stand idly by and will steadfastly protect our intellectual property.”

At Esendex, we are not coming down on either side of the debate -  we love the S2 and the iphone 4 equally.  It is clear however that mobile usage is growing quickly.

Recent research from mobcity.com found that the average Australian will spend 35 minutes a day sending text messages. The number of SMS messages sent in Australia has increased dramatically over the last few years. In 2010, there was a 300% increase in overall SMS/MMS message use across the country.

With all this in mind the mobile phone race has never been closer.

Who do you think will win this battle of cool technology?

Infographic: Stats about mobile usage

As a country Australia is sending far more SMS messages than we were just a couple of years back. Below we take a look at some of the emerging trends and staggering figures that highlight the growth of mobile phone usage across Australia.

Did you know that in 2010 there was a 300% increase in overall SMS/MMS message volumes across the country? Everyone, from young children to old grandparents, knows how to send a text message today.

Figures compiled by mobicity.com show that most Australians spend 35 minutes a day sending text messages. In 2010, 8 million text messages were sent across Australia on Valentine’s Day. Teenagers send on average 5 text messages a day – 83% of all Australian teens own a mobile phone.

Half of these teens do not turn their phone off at night and a quarter of them admit to replying to texts they receive at night immediately: 10% of these teens admit to receiving text messages that wake them up each night.

But it’s not just young people who send text messages – figures show that Australian seniors send on average one text message a day, too.

This is just a snap shot of the volume of SMS messages that are being sent across Australia each and every day. As a nation we are one of the most mobile-tech savvy: 43% of Australians own a Smartphone and 26% of all Australians participate in mobile social networking and 32% of Australians own an Apple iPhone.

With such impressive growth rates it is little wonder then that more and more brands are using mobile and SMS messaging in particular as an effective marketing channel.

Click on the magnifier glass to check the infographic

Emergency SMS and natural disasters

Floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, cyclones, thunderstorms, damaging hail stones, torrential rains, destructive winds… the threat from natural disasters appears to be growing around the globe. But countries are increasingly working on ways to warn people in case of an emergency through SMS. Find out how.

As the summer approaches in Australia, there are numerous and severe weather conditions that can cause havoc and be a threat to the well-being of people and their belongings.

To help, a commission of enquiry is seeking for an emergency SMS system to be put in place so that Australians can be better prepared for natural disasters. By using SMS and mobile telephone technology, the system will aim to alert people when dangerous weather conditions are approaching.

SMS alerts in demand

Since the floods and the cyclone hit Queensland earlier this year, the demand for these SMS emergency warnings has increased considerably. Local councils, such as Brisbane and Townsville, are already offering this service to all citizens who register, so that they can receive official warnings in case of critical weather.

The use of these SMS alerts in cases of natural disasters by local and government authorities has not gone unnoticed by private companies too though, with many having launched their own kind of service too. The Australian Early Warning Network is just one of them, providing a multi-channel alerts service, with mobile phones as the main way of communication through fast and direct SMS.

All these services monitor the weather and if they detect that particularly dangerous weather may affect a specific region they send SMS alerts to registered users within that area. Once the text message is read, those who receive a text message alert are provided with some extra time to prepare for the weather, get their houses ready for the event and in if necessary evacuate.

SMS emergency warning

The specific characteristics of SMS text messages makes them the best way of communication in the complex and ever-changing situation experienced during and immediately after a natural disaster.

Haiti, Japan, New Zealand… Many countries have been recently hit by earthquakes or tsunamis, which can be among the most devastating of all natural disasters.

The effectiveness of Group SMS when a natural disaster such as this strikes can be truly life-saving, offering hope and information to those suffering.