The MoPR Blog

It’s a short, weird week here at MoPR what with the July 4 long weekend and Canada Day on July 1, so we’re bringing you the usual Friday blog post on Thursday.

So not J/K: Mobile phone users want text messaging. A new report by ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc. and conducted by independent research firm Amplitude Research says a whopping 73 percent of new cell phones buyers are demanding text messaging as a main feature. Texting capability demands were followed by Internet (61%) and email capabilities (63%). Also scoring big was music (34%) and video capability (33%). Users are increasingly using phones to check email: 41% of the survey respondents who use a cell phone with emailing capabilities said they send or check for emails one to five times a day.

Mobile advertising slowly climbing. According to a new study by BIGresearch , advertising account planners aren’t exactly piling on mobile advertising to their ad plans although phone users [90%] are increasing in numbers- meaning there’s a growing audience ready and waiting. The proverbial silver lining? The important and elusive 18-24 year old segment is increasingly being influenced by non-traditional forms of advertising.

According to the analysis, cell phones are much more likely to trigger an online search for young consumers than all adults (21.8% v. 8.3%), as is text messaging (15.3% v. 4.8%).

The 18-24 year old set is also more likely to download to a cell phone than the general market (31.6% v. 15.9%).

Interestingly, more than half (50.5%) of 18-24 year olds communicate with others about a service, product or brand via cell phone (compared to 29.6% of all adults), second only to face-to-face communication (66.9%). They are also almost three times as likely to communicate through text messaging than all adults (30.7% v. 10.8%).

The Twouble with Twitter. Our love/hate relationship with Twitter is not news. It seems the service is down more than up, while posts seem to magically disappear in front of our eyes. But now comes a potential competitor from Canada: Identi.ca.

Identi.ca, launched by Control Yourself, Inc.,  lets users post short messages which are then broadcast to friends in their social network using instant messages (IM), RSS feeds, and the Web.

According to the press release, “Identi.ca is similar to existing microblogging sites such as Twitter, Jaiku, or Pownce. Unlike those services, Identi.ca’s underlying software is available under an Open Source license.”

But like Twitter, it seems to be very slow - and down - frequently. Might not be the great Twitter killer everyone has been chatting about, but at this point it does have potential to be more open than Twitter.

Client news: Cascada announces Cascada Mobile Breeze. Our Toronto-based client, Cascada Mobile, officially announced its Breeze development platform on Monday. Breeze lets users create and distribute mobile applications using basic HTML and JavaScript. It’s really that simple. CEO Alan Lysnee shows some example apps here.

Client news: Talkster adds Skype and Google Talk compatibility. Long time MoPR client, Talkster announced its integration with Skype last week and kicked off this week with the announcement that its’ Free World Dialing Service can now be used from Google Talk for free calling in countries not yet supported by Talkster’s ad-supported calling service.  With the Skype integration, Talkster callers with Skype subscription plans can use their Skype account (and free local calling minutes) to make free international and group calls to cell phones and landlines in 34 countries.

Google Talk for the iPhone. Google has announced a new US version of Google Talk designed specifically for the iPhone and iPod Touch. From Google’s press page:  “In addition to sending your friends Gmail messages from your iPhone, you can now chat with them while you’re on the move, too! Google Talk runs entirely in the browser so there’s no need to download or install anything.”

Mashable’s take? “It’s kinda useless.”

Take the Smartphone Challenge. The PhoneStore is hosting something they call The SmartPhone Challenge. Companies that take the challenge [though we’re unclear what the actual challenge is] can test five BlackBerry devices programmed with their phone number, email and contacts with full managed Microsoft Exchange hosting and BlackBerry Enterprise Server Hosting from Rackspace, for 10 days at no charge. According to the website users can select a date, provide the information then launch the 10-day challenge. Hats off to the PhoneStore for a great promo campaign [and a hat tip to Blackberry Cool].

Last Friday, Tamara and I went out to Portland State University to talk with students about Talkster.

We set up a demo table on the park blocks in beautiful weather (some say it was hot, but being from Mississippi, I thought it was glorious) and got some great reactions from the visitors to our booth. I did demos from the iPhone and Tamara made sure to take plenty of pictures.

My favorite comments came from an Australian student named Tamara Prins. She was super excited about Talkster because she travels a lot and spends tons of money on calling home and talking to her friends and family in other countries.

“I came around the corner and saw your booth, and I was thinking, this must be one of those services where you sign a contract for a certain number of minutes,” Prins said. “Then I realized that it was free. Really free. It was much better than I expected!”

After we showed Prins how the service worked, she left the booth to hang out with friends. We thought that was the last we would see of her. But soon after that, she headed back over to the booth. Prins had been inside the student union, signed up for Talkster and emailed her family and friends in Australia with their new Talkster numbers to use for free calls.

”I spend hundreds of dollars on phone cards. This will be heaps cheaper. This solves all my problems. It’s so fast and simple,” Prins said of signing up for and using Talkster to make free international calls.

She became our little evangelist for the day. She wore Talkster beads and a Talkster sticker and told everyone that she walked by to come over to our booth. Our student evangelist even did a little selling to her friends in the Oregon Student Association.

“I was telling my friend about it, and he was saying he used Skype,” she explained. “I asked him, ‘how often are you walking around with your computer?’ This makes way more sense. I can use it from my mobile without needing my computer. I don’t think it gets better than this.”

Similar reactions to the Talkster offering came from each person we showed the service to. Check out some of these great quotes we heard from students at Portland State:

“I have a lot of friends here with family in Egypt, so I’m very interested in this
service. It would be great if you could expand into every country!” -Youssef C.

“I’m very happy that my family in Mexico won’t have to have a mobile to make
this work!” -Mary R.

“This is so helpful. I’m studying in Spain this summer and this will save me so
much in calling cards. I won’t have an excuse not to call home.” -Ryan S.

Being able to help people like this really makes my job worthwhile. It was great to see a smile on Prins’ face and to see her enthusiasm for something I’m already so enthusiastic about. It’s so fulfilling to be able to promote something that helps so many people stay in touch at no cost to them. This experience really helped me to solidify my belief in the Talkster message of free telephony worldwide. I can’t wait to visit other colleges to share with students about how they can save money and communicate internationally! - Grace Saad

Many people who celebrate Cinco de Mayo with a cold beer (or two or three) each May 5th believe that they are celebrating Mexico’s Independence Day.

Not so.

Besides being ano\her reason to break out your sombrero and party, the true significance of the holiday is that on the 5th of May in 1810 4,000 Mexican soldiers defeated the French at Puebla, Mexico. Mexico actually declared its independence from Spain on September 15th that same year.

Here in metro Portland, where MoPR is headquartered, we have many opportunities to enjoy traditional Mexican food and celebrations such as Cinco de Mayo. Every year Portland holds a four-day celebration that attracts more than 300,000 people to the Waterfront Park for a Cinco de Mayo celebration. The fiesta exposes Oregonians to traditional cuisine, art, music and folklore from Mexico and Portland’s sister city of Guadalajara. Needless to say I will be attending.

I became even more excited about these festivities this year when I found out that MoPR client Talkster will be launching its free calling services in 14 regions throughout Mexico for the iconic holiday. With the addition of the Mexico calling area just think of how many people Talkster will help to communicate with family and friends this Cinco de Mayo and year-round!

Oregon’s already huge Hispanic population is growing consistently. Nationwide, the Hispanic population continues to grow at an unfathomable rate – they are the nation’s largest ethnic minority. With this growth, the need for an affordable method of communication for immigrants, business people and U.S. citizens calling to and from Mexico will become even more important and necessary.

Hispanics as a group consume a great amount of mobile technology, with 75 percent of all U.S. Hispanic households carrying multiple mobile phones and over 50 percent regularly using text messaging and other personal handheld technology services, according to a recent study by M: Metrics. In addition, 32 percent of Latinos are moderately or highly receptive to mobile marketing messages and respond favorably to text message advertisements, according to a study by the Mobile Marketing Association.

Talkster’s free calling service to Mexico will offer this enormous population the ability to communicate with their loved ones and business partners for free and can eliminate the need for this demographic to purchase calling cards. Talkster is also giving advertisers another way to target the growing Hispanic market.
This growing demographic is making major waves in the technology and business arenas, and I can’t wait to see how Hispanic-Americans help to shape the future of our country.
Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with a cold drink, some hot tamales and unlimited free calling to and from Mexico with Talkster!