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].

Weekend Reading is posted every Friday and represents some of the cooler and interesting mobility, wireless and collaboration news Mobility PR has read throughout the week.

Can we finally forget about forgetting someone’s phone number? Mary Jo Foley outlines Microsoft’s plan to eliminate phone numbers with Echoes. Will users buy into it? Check out the comments section to read for yourself – like any comment section, there are some very well-though out responses and just plain nastiness – but all very entertaining.

Mo’ money, mo’ problems. Twitter nabbed $15 million in funding. Hooray! Maybe now they can afford to buy another server for their service. Key functions such as IM and the ability to read older posts have been down all week leaving users frustrated and ready to bolt to another service – Friendster and Pownce have both been mentioned as alternative hang outs.

Readers rule. We picked up a magazine called Everywhere at SXSW a couple months back. What made it more interesting than all the other stacks of magazines is that the content is purely reader-driven. Every article, blurb and photo was submitted by readers. Is this a trend? Maybe. This Old House Magazine’s July issue will be called Your Old House and will be completely written by readers. We’ll be blogging more on this on a future post – we think it’s a fascinating topic and wonder how this new business model will affect both the publishing and public relations industry.

Another week, another report extolling mobile advertising. A recent Harris Interactive claims “there are strong opportunities in mobile advertising during the current economic downturn.”

How’s that?

According to the 2008 Consumer Acceptance of Mobile Advertising study by Harris Interactive, Rochester, N.Y, consumers have no plans to cut back their purchases of cell phones. The survey shows that 16% of U.S. homes are using wireless phones exclusively, more than double the amount used four years ago.

And during the economic slowdown, advertisers can effectively reach consumers through innovative marketing techniques such as mobile advertising.

Social media for the uninitiated. Do you get social media? Confused about new social media? Need to explain it to a client? Your mom? Here’s a cute, funny and very informative video someone created to explain it in easy terms.

Weekend Reading is posted every Friday and represents some of the cooler and interesting mobility, wireless and collaboration news Mobility PR has read throughout the week.

Hydrogen fuel cells coming to a mobile phone near you? We love hot new technology, as long as it doesn’t burn.

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On Tuesday, Plaxo users received an email from Plaxo CEO Ben Golub, and the company’s two founders stating “We are excited to announce some of the biggest news in the history of Plaxo. Plaxo has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Comcast,” The email included a link to the official announcement, a link to a newly strengthened privacy policy and a link to an announcement Q&A on the deal addressing users potential concerns.

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A recent study by IDC and sponsored by Nortel suggested that more than one-third of workers would choose their mobile phone over their wallet, keys, laptop or digital music player if they had to leave the house for 24 hours and could take only one item.

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In the “no kidding” department, a new consumer survey from IBM’s Institute for Business Value says consumers want more choice when it comes to mobile phone service. According to the report, 80 percent of consumers said they’d prefer a service provider that gave them more choice in the applications and services available on their mobile device.

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Tired of Twitter constantly being down? Here’s a list of nine mobile social media sites to visit when – not if – Twitter is down again.

And speaking of Twitter, in response to Twitter users “Twit-Out” (a 24-hour boycott of the popular service in response to repeated service outages) Sarah Perez of ReadWriteWeb questioned if in light of recent world tragedies we should refocus our efforts and leverage social media superpowers to make a real difference in the world. She asks,

We know how to spread news fast, share images and videos, organize our friends, and empower others all by using the same social media tools that we use in our every day lives. Isn’t it time we put them to use towards a good cause?” The article that follows outlines some great examples of exactly how that can be done.

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With all his spare time, Ewan at SMS Text News has launched a weekly podcast. The 40-minute episodes feature news, interviews and “Applications of the Week” segments.