.FLYINGHEAD MOBILE PHONE TRENDS
.TITLE Premium SMS: interaction made easy
.AUTHOR Steinar Svalesen
.SUMMARY Premium SMS services distribute useful information requested by mobile phone users through the same network used by standard SMS carriers. Now, instead of using SMS only to stay in touch with friends, mobile phone customers can stay connected to what they view as essential information — be it stock prices, flight delays, World Cup scores, or the latest soap opera plot twist. This interesting article provides some good insight into premium SMS trends.
.OTHER
The mobile phone continues to grow in popularity as the most accessible communications device ever, with unit sales in the U.S. in 2003 increasing by 20 percent to more than 70 million, according to analyst firm IDG. But future growth in mobile phone use and adoption will depend on new text messaging services that enable people to interact with broadcast media and receive essential up-to-the-minute information.
The Internet changed people’s perception of information and entertainment, which used to be known as things "out there" that were spoon-fed to the general public. The Internet allows people to control the delivery of, and even play a role in, the dissemination of information. Internet users began responding to polls, voting for their favorite new song, sending messages to guests on MTV, and requesting the weather forecast, news and traffic updates on demand, in numbers that couldn’t be accommodated through the telephone networks.
Now, mobile phone users can have that same level of participation no matter where they are, using devices that are always within arms reach.
The first short message services (SMS) for mobile phones enabled a person to send text messages of up to 160 characters to another user. While wildly popular in Europe and Asia, these services were slow to develop in the U.S. because of incompatible telecommunications networks, a problem that was only resolved within the last 18 months.
Within the caregory of SMS, there’s user-level SMS (friend-to-friend) and premium-level SMS, which is what we’ll be discussing in this article.
.BREAK_EMAIL For more about premium SMS, click here to read the full article.
Premium SMS services distribute useful information requested by mobile phone users through the same network used by standard SMS carriers. Now, instead of using SMS only to stay in touch with friends, mobile phone customers can stay connected to what they view as essential information — be it stock prices, flight delays, World Cup scores, or the latest soap opera plot twist. Premium SMS messages — which look just like standard SMS messages — come in three flavors: "blast" messages that are automatically sent by providers as alerts, "be heard" messages enabling the masses to communicate via polls and interactive chats, and "at your request" text that is sent in response to brief user messages.
Media companies believe that they can reach a wider audience through premium SMS services because more people have mobile phones than Internet access, because people crave news updates wherever they are, and because TV and radio audiences are more likely to pick up the handy mobile phone than go to a computer to participate. Premium SMS enables providers to enhance their revenues by charging customers fees for these new premium information services.
Premium subscription services will offer periodic alerts for headlines, TV show plot lines, sports scores and possibly even civic-minded warnings such as Amber Alerts or terrorism information. Television and radio will continue to add interactivity to their programming by letting viewers "vote off" contestants from reality or talent shows; phone users will be able to send messages to celebrities on talk shows to complement online chats, and music lovers will be able to request their favorite songs by sending a text message to a common short code or five-digit telephone number using whichever wireless service they are subscribed to.
Delivering this timely information via SMS will help mobile phone users to optimize their time and make last minute plans. For example, premium text messaging will offer traffic and weather updates to help avoid delays. Equally valuable will be the capability of sending a message to request a brief restaurant or movie review when trying to decide whether to head uptown or downtown on Saturday night.
Media companies such as Disney and News Corp. (owner of the Fox networks) are already launching premium services within their TV channels and programs that deliver useful and time-sensitive information to the never-out-of-reach mobile phone. According to analyst firm Alexander Resources, premium text-based "infotainment" services revenue will grow from $1.5 billion in 2005 to $2.7 billion in 2008.
Text messaging adoption rates in the United States are growing in both mature and young adult markets. According to the mobileYouth 2002 report, "The youth Market in North America is ready to explode, particularly in prepay and SMS usage — the latter of which will surge 1070% from 2002 to 2004, with 1.1 billion messages being sent monthly across the US networks by the 5-24 year old demographic." In addition, the mobileYouth 2002 report predicts that 36 million Americans, ages 5-24 years will own mobile phones by 2004.
Service providers have the financial incentives to develop even more innovative information services that will take advantage of the mobile phone as the most accessible device for interacting with a broad audience.
.BIO Steinar Svalesen is the CEO of Telenor Mobile Interactive USA, an interactive media company, develops and implements innovative mobile applications based on cross-carrier premium messaging capabilities. The company is a fully owned subsidiary of Telenor Mobile, the wireless business area of Telenor ASA (Nasdaq: TELN) headquartered in Oslo, Norway. Steiner can be reached at steinar.svalesen@telenor-usa.com and http://www.telenor-interactive.com.
