Lately, Nokia is starting to look like the next Sony.  At least in the sense that they are also a mighty manufacturer extending their business into content – and finding it tough to navigate.  Then all of a sudden, their hardware business is threatened (not coincidentally by the same CE companies).

I’m a Nokia fan.  I love my N95.  I still keep a sim card in it and use it as my back up phone.  I love my iphone, too, but I hate it when its battery dies every afternoon.  That’s when I’m happiest to see my N95 sitting at the bottom of my briefcase…Bouncing around in there for what seems like weeks, it always has a charge and is ready to save the day.

Yes, I’m a Nokia fan, but it’s beginning to feel nostalgic.  Like that band you loved…Their first two albums were great, but you stopped following them after a while.  You still have a soft spot for them, but you don’t buy their new releases.  You hope to get a chance to see them live again, but only if it’s the original line up and they play their hits.

Keeping my N95 in service feels like I’m keeping that band’s first two albums on my ipod or iphone for when I’m in the mood.

Maybe Nokia could put the band back together with its original members and do a greatest hits tour…..or a one-off at the Nokia Theater?

Your provider will share data about you (see the list below) with a third party search/adnetwork provider.  And you, the customer, will benefit by seeing search results (ads) in an order influenced by this data.  Sounds innocent enough and makes the marketer in me drool.  As a consumer, I’m a bit uncomfortable with this notion, but I digress.   So, is this big news?  It is in mobile….but only If there’s scale <sigh> </sigh>  The bigger question may be: Will scale come before regulation?  My guess is “no,” at least here in the U.S.  The current administration is beginning to look hard at behavioral targeting and privacy issues.  It feels kinda creepy to me.

Here’s Mobile Marketing Watch’s take on what data will influence the search results:

The data derived from the carrier that influences the search results include:

• Two or more demographics associated with the user, wherein the demographics are obtained from the billing system of the carrier.
• Shopping habits of the user as recorded through use of the mobile communication facility, wherein the shopping habits include views of or purchases of goods or services.
• Duration of on-line interactions by the user from using the mobile communication facility.
• Usage patterns of the mobile communication facility including past mobile communication facility transactions comprising click-throughs.
• Previous search queries entered by the user via the mobile communication facility.

Now even more portable

While I’ve already begun posting to TNP from my iphone using the Word Press app, I didn’t have a good way to provide a mobile (Portable) edition.  Lame, indeed as a blog called The New Portable.

…Until Now:  I just installed Wordpress Mobile Edition plugin from these guys:  http://crowdfavorite.com/

It strips away my template, but it seems like a much better mark up for the iphone, at least.  Please let me know how you like it.  It has user agents for a variety of feature phones and smartphones.

It has a user agent detection routine that routes  mobile traffic to a different Wordpress template with a series of mobile style sheets.

Try it on your mobile (www.newportable.com) and let me know if you like it.  We have to walk the walk.

I would have gone a bit further, as I typically get passionate about things that seem obvious to me (apologies to M.D. for using the word passionate).

Here’s where I’m going:  If a large and growing percentage of emails are opened on a mobile device, the email marketers (every e-commerce player) have a problem with their outbound emails as noted in the article.  Check.

Some of the problems:  1) Often, they are not formatted for device 2) the links are to a www site that is slow, not technically optimized nor content-optimized for mobile use case 3) and MOST IMPORTANTLY -  these users can’t act upon impulse to easily BUY anything from the merchant.

There is a stat in the article that deals with how many people will interact with the email a second time from their desktops.  Even if I did believe that some significant portion of the audience will respond later via desktop to an offer they viewed on mobile, why would you force them to?  Instead, I recommend providing an opportunity to buy right then and there from the mobile device.

This seems like an obvious opportunity to me.

• Optimize your email program by learning the habits of your audience – or ask them.
• Send mobile friendly emails
• Create  offers to mobile users that are time sensitive and compelling enough to act upon at the moment of impulse
• Make it easy for them to click and buy right from their mobile device.  I know of a great mobile web based credit card billing solution:  Billing Revolution.

Is this really so far out there?  Comments, Please!

The phone card cta seems weak, but who knows?

The use of SMS by Audible seems like a no brainer. A mobile cta for a mobile product. Makes sense to me.

I will opt in to both and share the resulting interactions in an update to this post.

NPR APp Screenshot via MocoNews

Some interesting info here on NPR’s mobile efforts. I worked with NPR to launch their first mobile web site a few years ago. They’re ahead of the curve in many ways and this will keep them there. While NPR is unique, content owners/distributors can all get something from this.

Read more here…