The MoPR Blog

Wireless has landed – many U.S. homes ditch land lines. A new study from The Nielsen Company says that more than 20 million U.S. telephone households (17 percent) are wireless substitutors, or, homes without landlines that rely solely on a mobile phone for their home telecommunications. The new research suggests that one in five U.S. households could be wireless-only by the end of 2008. The study suggested that one of the reasons for dumping landlines is the tightening economy and households looking for ways to save money. Landline phone bills average around $40 a month.

Interestingly, wireless substitution doesn’t work for everyone.  Ten percent of landline phone customers have experimented with wireless-only in their household, but then returned to landline service.  Nielsen reports that needing a landline for another service (security system, satellite TV, pay-per-view, fax machine, etc.) is the primary reason people “mend the cord.”

Mobile social networks fueled by advertising. Ad-funded social networks will provide the bulk of revenues in the mobile user-generated content (UGC) space by 2013, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

The report says that the total value of the UGC market – comprised of social networking, dating and personal content delivery (PCD) services - will rise from nearly $1.1 billion in 2008 to more than $7.3 billion in 2013, with social networking overcoming dating to become the largest revenue generating segment by 2009.

Other findings from the report include:

• The number of active users of mobile social networking sites is expected to rise from 54 million in 2008 to nearly 730 million in 2013.
• The Far East and China region will be most popular in terms of mobile user numbers for mobile social networking and PCD throughout the forecast period, but the Indian Sub Continent will become the largest region for mobile dating services by 2010
• There will be more than 9 billion downloads from PCD sites by 2013, of which 32 percent will be ad-supported.

Dig it! A new Twitter tool. Does using Twitter sometime feel like you’re posting in the dark? Tired of your genius 160-character diatribes going nowhere? You might like Dwigger, a new tool for Twitter that’s similar to Digg. It works by supplementing Twitter by putting Tweets into threaded conversations with vote buttons. By doing so, users Tweets can be voted on. So, what’s the value-add to Twitter? More exposure? Higher web search rankings? Ego boosts? We have to admit Dwigger’s site is pretty cool: top geo clouds, top Tweets and top users. Where’s the mobile app for iPhone and smartphones?

Your social networking friends are…different. Mark Dykeman of Mashable has a fascinating and enlightening piece on the five different types of social media “friends.” Here’s his lead:

“Would you trust a social media friend with your money? Your home? Your significant other? Your children? Your life? Your answer to those questions will determine whether or not you feel that friends, as used in social media, are friends like you had in school or if they’re better labeled as something else.”

He asks if adding or following someone is a tactical move or signs of genuine affection and solidarity?

Dykeman then lists the five types of social network friends: connectors; prospects; groupies; friends and family; information sources.

We’re faced with this on sites such as LinkedIn whenever we add someone. Are they a friend? A former co-worker? Or the worst, “other?” What if we mark them as former co-worker but they think of themselves as a friend?

Man, social networking is a minefield. Where’s Miss Manners when you need her?

Read Dykeman’s piece here.

iPhone’s autocorrect feature well hated. At least it kind of bugs us when we’re texting. And now, according to Mobile Industry Review, someone wants to change it. Please Let Us Disable, Steve is pleading with Apple to disable the auto correction by having users sign a petition. Here’s their plea taken from their website:

Hi Steve Jobs. We now updated to the new iPhone Firmware 2.1 and it definitely made things go much smoother! But we all still miss one feature: We’d like to be able to disable the annoying autocorrection! At the time it is really not Apple-like. Please let your developers make a simple switch button to turn autocorrection off (they probably will do that in 20 seconds, right?). Thank you very much!

Hey, since we’re asking Jobs for favors, here’s our plea: Dear Steve, please let us send SMS photos via texting. And add video.

If you are wondering where our iPhone post is, we didn’t write one – there are plenty of posts to read on the subject already.

We DID take a snap of the line of the Apple store at a shopping mall here in Portland on Friday though:

Now, on to the weekly reading list…

On the endangered list: Postcards. A new survey from M:Metrics says that photo messaging from mobile phones has grown 60 percent in the U.S. and 16 percent in Europe over the past year. As the mercury climbs in the summer months, so does the usage of photo messaging in the United States, where for the past three years, photo messaging rates have been far higher than average in July and August.

Surprisingly, the usage comes from all age demographics, not just the vaunted 18-24 group. The fastest growth is coming from teens [no surprise here] and those older than 35.  In the more developed European market, the strongest growth is coming from those ages 55 years and older.

Mobile Internet Usage Explodes. Forty million US mobile subscribers (15.6 percent) actively use the mobile Internet, making the US a leader in mobile Internet adoption, according to a report released by The Nielsen Company. In 16 countries tracked, the US leads, followed by the UK (12.9 percent) and Italy (11.9 percent).

Among other key takeaways from the report is the finding that advertising is becoming a key part of the mobile Internet experience with 26 percent of mobile Internet users viewing ads while using the mobile Internet. Those surfing the mobile Internet were found to be more receptive to mobile advertising than the average data user.

The report also believes that the U.S. mobile Internet market, with 40 million active users, has reached “a critical mass for mobile Internet marketing.”

Banner ads get new life. Are you a fan of banner ads? Yeah, neither are we. But they must work – for someone – because they are a part of the Web’s landscape as much as anything else. If they haven’t been blocked by pop-up blockers, static ads for reconnecting to old classmates or getting mortgage loans are omnipresent.

However, banner ads might be getting more interesting and interactive soon. Spongecell [LINK] has been developing new interactive banner ads that let advertisers “produce engaging and relevant information” on banner ads.

The Spongecell technology lets advertisers push out their messaging to calendars, social profiles, mobile devices and home pages. For instance if it’s a banner ad announcing an event, an end-users can send the times and dates to their Facebook page, add it to their calendar and even invite friends – right from the ad itself.

Go here and play with a sample ad.

Symbian adds allies to Foundation. According to Network World , The Symbian Foundation has gained more companies joining the organization, including mobile operators 3, América Móvil and TIM as well as semiconductor manufacturer Marvell services and software providers Aplix, EB, EMCC Software, Sasken and TietoEnator. About 150 organizations have registered their interest in joining, says Network World.

The foundation is developing a new operating system for mobile devices with the first release available next year.

The Symbian Foundation was announced last month, when Nokia acquired the Symbian operating system. Nokia has plans to turn over the mobile operating system to the foundation for development.