Gianni Cooreman (pictured below) says web surfing via phone is the way forward

Multiple sources confirm that mobile access is set to become the primary access to the Internet in the future. Thanks to the rise of touch screen devices, smartphones and netbooks with Internet access, people can now use the Internet anywhere, anytime.

Already we can see a higher penetration of the smartphone in Scandinavian countries (17%), mostly in Norway and Finland. This indicates the use of mobile Internet as the natural next step after Internet access from a fixed connection (the Nordics being very mature Internet markets). This higher use also has an impact on the level of subscription plans. Research carried out by OECD shows that mobile subscription fees in Scandinavian countries are actually among the lowest. The reverse can also be true, since low prices are likely to further stimulate the demand.
People who access the Internet on their mobile phones show a fairly similar ranking of activities for personal purposes to general Internet behaviour: emailing, searching information and reading the news are the top three activities among mobile surfers. Mobile access to social networks seems a winning application too: nearly one in three people on a social network use it via their mobile phone.

If we take away the fact that price can be a barrier to mobile Internet use by asking consumers which type of device they would prefer to use for each type of service or application if they had unlimited use, this reveals the typical Internet applications used on the move. Not surprisingly, nearest business or service information (eg cash points, restaurants, hotels etc) or information about food and drink facilities come out as clear winners for ‘on-the-move’ Internet applications. Breaking news and tourist/location information are services triggering a high interest, both for use at home and on-the-move. Sponsoring this type of information could be an interesting application to build brand image – for travel agencies or credit card companies, for instance.

The role of the mobile phone converges more and more towards a multifunctional device for which phone calls are only one of the many applications.

The next progression is to use the mobile phone as a personal GPS device. Receiving navigation instructions is actually the application that more than half of consumers claim to be rather or very interested in. Taking the idea of GPS a step further, we arrive at the so-called ‘location based’ services: this type of service uses information on your actual location to propose customised or localised information or services: an example is Mastercard offering an iPhone application to its customers indicating the nearest ATM service. Another example could be (sponsored) links of nearby pizza restaurants brought to you by Google maps.

The potential of location based services is huge, but a certain number of challenges and hurdles do still exist: besides technological barriers of multiple platforms, handset formats and telecom operator infrastructures, the biggest commercial challenge for push applications is probably to respect consumer privacy. In most European countries, privacy regulations specify that user location information cannot be used for commercial purposes without any explicit consent and opt-in of the end-users.

Within this context, Telco operators do not seem very keen on releasing this type of information about ‘their’ customers. This issue is not likely to be resolved in the short term, therefore the only feasible alternative is to work on the basis of pull applications where the consumer only receives information after an explicit request or opt-in to a service. Another barrier for consumers is the fear of cost getting out of control due to the lack of flat subscription fees.

That being said, there are some guidelines marketers need to take into account when exploring the mobile landscape:

• Respect privacy: the mobile phone offers tremendous opportunities to connect with your brand, taking into consideration personal preferences, time and even your actual location. However, it is also probably the most intimidating device, hence consumer privacy needs to be handled with care. Not only within legal restrictions on use of location information in most European countries, but also at the risk of burning your brand among customers who aren’t interested in connecting with your brand via their mobile.
• Build a relevant extension of brand experience: Mastercard offers location based information of nearby Automatic Teller Machines to its customers, Guide Michelin could easily give location based information on specific restaurants to its opt-in customers.
• Enabling user generated sharing & shaping: instead of delivering facts and figures for your brand via official websites and other sources, in the eyes of consumers the most reliable information comes from friends and peer group members. Enhancing the exchange of this type of information will further extend the credibility of your brand.
• Mind the gap: Although fairly sophisticated information camera overlay applications already exist and are in constant evolvement, the European market is still relatively niche with ‘only’ 14 per cent of European consumers having a smartphone offering the technical ability to receive this type of service in a convenient way. It goes without saying that the type of handset of the target group needs to be taken into consideration to ensure a good customer experience.

From a marketing perspective, the mobile phone offers a connection device enabling a level of personalisation a marketer never dared to dream of before: a dialogue can be started taking into consideration personal preferences, time and even the location of the consumer! Meanwhile, consumers have also become even better informed about applications allowing them to scan product barcodes and directly access the Internet to retrieve more detailed product information or look up any available product comparison overviews.

We believe the mobile future will consist of next generation location based services for larger screen mobile phones that are able to overlay local information on actual points of interest. Take Layar, for example – a mobile augmented reality browser displaying real-time digital information on top of reality in the camera screen of your mobile phone. One of the possible applications could be to show, in real-time, tourist guide information for famous city buildings. Public transport companies in cities such as Paris and New-York are overlaying the subway infrastructure on the actual location of the customer.

Following the logic of user generated web 2.0 interaction, instead of a push of information the new tendency will be a pull of information created and shared among peer groups: the most successful mobile Internet applications are also likely to be user content generated applications.
More information on the mobile future and other challenges (digital) media marketers are facing these days, can be found in our MC DC study, one of the largest Internet studies to date (16 European countries, 32.000 consumers): http://mcdc.insites.eu

Gianni Cooreman is director, Digital Media, at InSites Consulting.