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“Google is expected to hold a press conference on Monday to unveil the project, which is expected to incorporate software from the Linux world into a mobile platform code-named Android that’s designed to run on phones, according to sources familiar with Google’s plans. A software development kit for what’s being called “a complete mobile-phone software stack” is believed to be in the works and will be released relatively soon thereafter, the sources said. It’s not exactly clear what kind of software will come as part of that stack, but it’s said to include everything you need to run a phone.” – CNET

“Another key point will be how such an operating system, full of data applications, might increase data traffic. Data use on phones is already exploding, driving up revenue for carriers. Increasing that traffic is a top priority for them.” –

The smart phone market is expected to grow from 114 Million in 2007 to
300+Million by 2010. Most “basic phones” are going to be replaced by
smart phones. – Nytimes

According to a Forbes article on Nokia, there are over 1+ billion cell phone subscribers in the world and another 300 million+ expected (mostly in Asia) by 2010. In India where literacy rates are not the highest, the phone in its pure for for voice communication is and will continue to be the killer application for the next generation of buyers.

If you look at the Americas, EMEA and some advanced parts of Asia (Japan, Korea, etc.) data is the driver – whether its video, games, text messaging. The “smart phone” market is a relatively small part of the entire mobile phone handset market.

Google’s going for the advanced consumer market (versus corporate where Blackberry rules) with their GPhone OS launch is my belief. If you segment the cell phone buyer into a tangible set of user types:
Forbes

Detailed smart phone segmentation shows that there are several ways to slice this market.

1. By geography (Americas, Europe, Asia, etc.)
2. By primary usage pattern (Voice, text message, music, videos, games, email, etc.)
3. By user frequency (casual user, intense data user, intense voice user etc.)
4. User profile: business, home (consumer), professional, etc.

I am sure there are other segmentation models, but these are primary.

1. Apple at it core has aimed the initial iPod for the advanced Americas (and Europe), for usage patterns that are mostly voice and music and a person that is an intense user – most likely either professional or consumer, NOT business. Its lack of keyboard and poor integration with Microsoft Exchange (currently) makes it a poor choice for businesses that already have investments in Exchange.

2. Google on the other hand is going to get the most traction with a more global footprint (since they have a lot more carriers and handset makers involved) with a primary usage pattern for data (web surfing, etc.) and for most likely an intense user at that. I suspect the user profile would be a professional also. So the introduction of the Google phone is most likely going to hurt Nokia and the “rest” of the crew – Motorola and other (see 5)

3. Blackberry is trying to address multiple segments but primarily the data intense user whether its business or professional. Its the best for the business user for data. Most businesses already like Blackberry, because it addresses the key issues of security, email access and integration into enterprise technologies.

4. Microsoft has its hands on all pies, but great in nothing.

5. The rest: Samsung, Motorola, Palm, etc. are going for the mass segments is my sense. Basic phone, camera, etc. aimed at the consumer. Not for the smart phone (yet) and even if they do they’re not good at it.

6. Nokia like Microsoft is aiming everywhere, but since they are the incumbent, they can afford to have options everywhere.

So back to the Google phone.

I think most corporate business users still want email integration to Microsoft Exchange. Any linux based phone OS is not going to have the best support for that – Blackberry’s going to be ok.

Since Google’s trying to crack the smart phone for the masses market, the ones most likely to lose because of that are the fringe players – I suspect Motorola to further lose and either get acquired (by a small niche carrier – Alltel, Metro PCS) to be part of an end-to-end offering.

I think target iPhone is mis-leading. They are not after the same market segment currently.

What do you think?

I like options. I think.

I got a spam email from a “social media consulting” company based in Atlanta. Standard cold call pitch – not specific, no homework done, just another email from yet another company. But the email signature of this person was interesting.

14 lines long! Fourteen!

Name: <Name>
Company Name < Each letter in different colors BTW>
Phone: <Direct Line + extention>
Cell:<CELL #>
Fax: <FAX #>
Email: <Email address?
Website: <Website.com>
Blog site: blog site name
Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/name
Facebook:”>www.twitter.com/name
Facebook: facebook
Del.icio.us: username
Skype: username
AIM: messenger name
Yahoo: messenger name

I get it. You got an account everywhere. You know your stuff. Please help me with my social media.

thanks for the image: mindvalleylabs

In my day job I run Marketing for a Global Supply Chain Visibility software company, Inovis. Its about a ~$140 Million company. Our Marketing Budget allocation is pretty simple.

First some background. I believe there are 2 kinds of marketing teams:
1. Those that market for the sake of the marketing team: These do campaigns, events
to make sure their marketing team gets kudos for the great flash
website, being socially connected etc.

2. Those that market to drive revenue: These teams work closely with #1
constituents: customers and #2:sales to drive campaigns that generate
leads, engage with customers and closely monitor lead conversion etc.

I have read in several places that Social Media marketing is going to take over traditional marketing.

“More than three-quarters of US
marketing professionals surveyed think that social media marketing—also
known as Web 2.0—can give them a competitive edge, according to Coremetrics’ “Face of the New Marketer” study.”

“The same respondents said that only 7.75% of their online marketing spending went to such tactics. “

So you ask “What’s going on?”.

1. For most parts Social Media Marketing is “cheap“. Unlike events (which cost a lot and have a lot of hard $ costs), putting a blog, community site is relatively inexpensive, which is why it will never be a big part of the budget. You need resources but not an expensive upfront investment or a costly ongoing investment.

2. I do like Social media – I have 2 blogs, we Twitter, Utterz, do video blogs, have an online community etc, but still our bread is not buttered with social media. Why? The prospects and customers we intend to engage (in B2B) still dont view them as “aiding their research process”. They find them entertaining and “useful” but the call to action needs to be more subtle, so it ends up being less effective. If we do have strong calls to action they are viewed as being “sales-y”.

3. There are very few processes and proven methods to move a customer along the “lead funnel and process” with social media. I know this sounds old, but we are mostly measured by how much business a campaign drove. If you cannot quantify, something to the effect of – we targeted 100 people, 40 responded, 10 engaged, 3 sales cycles were initiated and 1 account was opened at $120K annual value of contract, it becomes very difficult to justify.

I am speaking on a panel at the Digital Asset Management and Marketing Operations conference. Nov 12th and 13th at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in LA. Registration. If you are attending, please say hi. I’ll buy you a drink.

The first one:
Marketing Performance Measurement Panel: Insights
into Creating and Using a Marketing Dashboard
The Power of a marketing dashboard begins with having the right metrics,
your ability to interact with data to reveal hidden patterns,
connections, and insights and use the dashboard to facilitate strategic
and resource allocation decisions. To provide you with insights into
process and best practices, the panel participants will share:

• The marketing metrics they chose and why

• Their marketing dashboard development process and challenges

• Guidance into securing buy-in and usage

• Lessons learned

Moderator: Laura Patterson, President, Vision Edge Marketing

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Ask any large company’s IT system and they’ll tell you that email is
the #1 application. Its used by everyone, so its mission critical. The #1 problem with email is SPAM.

Many attempts have been made before to bring the concept of Email postage. Since sending email is “free” that gives a lot of incentives for people to spam. Take the concept of “pay for email” to marketers, I am sure many would sign up.

To solve the problem of spam and unsolicited email though we have to go beyond just charging people to send email.

I believe we need to

give control of email BACK to the “recipient”.

So how do we do that? Provide a system that:
1. Allows each person to setup a “cost” to send email to them. This can be setup by the user. For e.g. I can put an unrealistically high number (say $5). That means anyone that wants to email me has to pay $5 / email. Of course when I receive the email I can “waive” that cost.

2. If any person wants to send “bulk email” to me as part of a list, the email system they use has to connect to the email servers to find out the approximate “total cost” of that email campaign. So if there’s a list of 10,000 names in that list, to ensure “delivery” of email to that list it the sender has to pay the total “price” each person has setup for receiving email.

Pros:
1. Any person can setup their “price” themselves – this removes the administrative barrier for ISP’s. ISP can set a minimum “threshold” but if the user chooses they can increase it or waive it.
2. This system guarantees an email will be delivered . It does not assure the receiver will read it.
3. If you keep a high “price” for your email, you will probably miss certain emails and offers that might be beneficial to you.
4. As a sender you dont have to worry about “CAN SPAM”. Why? If you want to spam people, and still spend a lot of money to do it, I am sure a lot of people are willing to accept payment for “practically doing nothing but deleting unwanted email”.

Cons:
1. Cost of implementing the system is high, especially for all email systems globally, but I’m not sure everyone needs to implement this at the same time. I am sure users will drive their companies / ISP to implement it.
2. Reduces “democracy” of email & “free flow” of communication – Not sure that’s a bad thing.

Like some other opinions / pros / cons: Robert Scoble, Chris Carfi, Ross, Jeremiah, Shiv & Vinnie.

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I dont think very many people would notice, but I turned off comments in this blog.

Reasons:

1. I really dont get a whole lot of comments. It takes either a “star blogger” or lots of time and energy to build a great audience. Since I dont have the time, and still like to blog, its easier to blog and enjoy it.

2. Dont want to login and approve comments daily. I did get many (not thousands) spam comments, but to wade through 100 spam comments to have the one good comment is painful and again as I said dont want to invest in it.

3. If you need to contact me you have my number and my email (check on the right navigation), and I get email comments more than I get comments on the blog anyway.

As the title says “Not a big deal”.

http://www.utterz.com/fp/social_network_streamer_small_green.swf?20

The Scrappy Marketer has a post today. So do many others including eMarketer. This is the Biggest Myth we have to bust.

Lets reason: Why does Email marketing have a high ROI?

1. People SPAM. Most people spam. Read the comments on Chris Anderson’s post on PR and look for a commenter named Dan. He and everyone else “buys lists” for the cheap. I got an email pitching me email addresses of 27,000 doctors in the US – for $395.

2. Its Easy: Yes there’s “ A/B testing, blah, blah, blah“. But Email marketing for most parts is EASY. You need 3 things right: 1) Target list – See #1 above. 2) Offer – In B2B whitepapers or 3rd party content works best and 3) Compelling draw – Again in B2B, sign up for this webinar now is sufficient.

3. Its CHEAP: To get a 2% open and 1% click through rate for an average sales price of $20 you only need about 20,000 names. Cost of this campaign <500.

Seth got this right “Email means the cost of adding one more name is zero. Email means that
lists keep getting bigger and bigger and once you’re on one, you’re on
em all.”

Its not the BEST ROI – Email is the CHEAPEST option if you SPAM & you do get returns, but is it the right thing to do?

Like saying “The easiest way to make a million is rob a bank” – but should you do it?

I am co hosting a webinar on Nov 14th with Jon Gatrell on
Supply Chain Management: How To Utilize Online Communities for Pharma.

This is being hosted by The Center for Business Intelligence. Please register to attend.

Details:

Leading
global pharmaceutical companies are enhancing their supply chain
management functions by using on line communities.  These communities
allow them to truly collaborate with their, partners, suppliers,
distributors & customers.  With extended fulfillment and multi-tier
distribution requirements, communities also need to be managed and
monitored for compliance.

Many
leading, bio/pharmaceutical companies have adjusted their traditional
supply chain management methodology to respond today’s on-demand 24/7
interactive and almost paperless world.   

Online
communities have entered into and been greatly accepted by the supply
chain management departments of bio/pharma.  There are some advantages
and disadvantages.

Join our speakers to learn if an online supply chain management community is right for your organization.

In this webinar, Mukund Mohan and Jon Gatrell will explain:

• The
  dynamics of online supply chain bio/pharma communities, and how to
  leverage those dynamics towards product innovation, trading and
  collaboration
• How to measure, manage and report the value from your community
• How to
  gain visibility and insight into your B2B collaboration and leverage it
  for collaborative use in support of ePedigree initiatives
• Methods
  for gaining immediate access to control visibility and traceability in
  your global supply chain from point of manufacture to end-user
• How to enable global partners and learn about international regulations
• Use of a community to share information about regulations, best practices and problem resolution
• How to drive value chain innovation, increase speed to market, reduce payment cycles and improve customer service

I had a chance to grab coffee last week with Michael Chin of KickApps. KickApps is one of the vendors that provides a turnkey solution to build communities. The company is about 60+ people based in New York with regional sales offices in Los Angeles. They have about 7000+ communities up and running according to Michael. He showed me a demo of one of their communities (thablock of HipHopMusicDotCom).

Basics:
1. Offering: Hosted solution with a good set of features / capabilities
2. Target Vertical Market: Media (publishing). Most small and regional newspapers / magazines & individual publishers are looking to build communities around the content they offer. KickApps is looking to target these accounts.
3. KickApps Pricing: 2 models exist currently:

• Using the KickApps Ad Network – No fee. They place banner and you can place your own skyscraper ads (Top and Left Column)
• You run your own ads and pay fees to KickApps based on CPM (per thousand views) – if you want to control your own advertising

4. KickApps Competition: While Jive and Leverage focus on Enterprise clients, Ning on consumer markets, KickApps sees Pluck (customer at USA Today) mostly in their competitive situations.

Assessment:
Since the original vision was towards empowering media companies to allow their users to connect and communicate, the theme of “rich media support” including videos, audio, etc. is evident within the KickApps product. Its a pretty easy to use and intuitive. Its well integrated with WordPress and they have a developer platform for API integration.

Useful Information: On the same lines as our 10 step checklist to building a successful community, KickApps put a 9 steps to a successful online community whitepaper. While simplistic  & not much new news, it reinforces some key traits of good communities:

Summary of 9 steps:
1. Define purpose and audience of community
2. Get a community manager (easier said than done, ask communityguy. com
3. Choose the right technology
4. Seed community with great content
5. Customize the look and feel
6. Promote the community
7. Encourage active participation
8. Manage your community with consistency
9. Listen and optimize

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Credit: Michele Hadburg from Bateman Group setting up the discussion with Michael.