Monday, 23 April, 2001, 11:19 GMT 12:19 UK
Turning mobile
phones into
portable billboards
Soon you'll need both phone and wallet to go
shopping
Text messages. We can't get
enough of them, and phone
companies hope they are a taste
of the future. But, writes BBC
News Online technology
correspondent Mark Ward, for the
user there's a hitch.
For most of us, Wap is woeful but
SMS is simply smashing. We can't get
enough of them. In February more
than 800 million text messages were
sent across the four UK phone
networks.
In the past we've been sending most
of these messages to each other, but
now companies, and mobile phone
firms in particular, are starting to
realise that SMS could do the job that
Wap was supposed to, and help them
ensure that third-generation (3G)
phones are not a complete flop.
"The precedent setting, the partner
creation, the revenue demonstration,
the proof of principle for 3G services
are all going to happen through SMS,"
said Andrew Bud, chief executive of
SMS management company Mblox.
Messaging medium
Mr Bud believes that consumers will
use SMS for their first taste of the
information-based services that
phone operators hope will provide the
revenue to pay for their new
high-speed phone networks.
The reason for this change in thinking
is obvious. "SMS has 100%
penetration, every telephone can do
it, it's proven technology," said Nigel
Couzens of city-info firm WCities,
"unlike Wap and the forthcoming
GPRS technology."
So brace yourself as more companies
begin using SMS to send adverts,
news about discounts and special
offers to you. The inbox on your
mobile could soon be bulging with all
manner of messages.
The precedent has already been set
at the Lakeside and Bluewater
shopping centres in Essex and Kent
where late last year SMS advertising
firm ZagMe ran the first trials. With
its system subscribers tell ZagMe
when they are going to the mall, how
long their shopping trip will last and
the bargains they are interested in.
The trial has been
hugely successful.
More than 50,000
people and 150
shops signed up
with ZagMe. The
service sends a
few messages per
hour to
subscribers. The
first messages
caused near riots
at the stores where the first few
consumers to turn up got discounts
on sports shoes.
Bill Green, chief executive of ZagMe,
put this enthusiasm down to the
"novelty factor" but adds: "The use of
this is going to become very much a
part of life."
The simple reason for this is because
it works. ZagMe estimates that a
£70,000 direct mail campaign can
reach around 85,000 people and
produce a response rate of about
1.5%. By contrast a £70,000 ZagMe
campaign reaches more than 230,000
people and gets a 10% response.
Mr Green said restaurants in
particular like the service because it
helps them keep the tables filled. By
sending out an SMS during quiet
times they get customers coming to
the restaurant and keep the tills
ringing.
ZagMe started with shopping centres
because they are geographically
distinct areas and it is easy to know
which mobile phone cell the
messages should be piped through.
Now the service is starting to be
expanded into other malls and soon
will be available along major
shopping streets in city centres.
Ads expand
It is not just shops that are starting
to use the service. Last week
messaging company Justabeep
launched two services, "barbeep" and
"nitebeep", that let people know of
drinks promotions and DJ
appearances via SMS. So far 65 bars
in Glasgow have signed up. London
and Paris are next. It is only one of
many more services that are expected
to be launched this year.
WCities, which provides city guides
for all manner of mobile devices, is
also looking to use SMS as a way for
people to find what they want when
they are in unfamiliar surroundings.
Mr Couzens from WCities said city
centres are perfect for this type of
service because the cells served by
mobile masts are smaller in built-up
urban areas. "Positioning is still done
via cell ID and is crude at the
moment," he said, "but it is possible
to get down to 100 metres in some
cases."
Soon it will be possible to interrogate
the WCities guides via SMS and get
in return a list of good restaurants,
cinemas or whatever close to where
you are standing.
By getting people used to using their
phone to access these sorts of
services, be they shopping discounts,
sports results or restaurant reviews,
many mobile operators are hoping
that it will be easier to persuade
consumers to move to, (and pay for)
third-generation networks.
With 3G networks, and the
improvements to existing mobile
phone networks, it becomes possible
to send longer messages and include
sounds, images or video clips or
digital tokens that can act like cash.
The downside is that some
unscrupulous firms are bound to start
sending out spam and clogging the
vastly bigger inbox of your futuristic
phone with messages that you don't
want about services or offers you
don't need. Welcome to the
information age.
generated by msg2page 0.06 on Jul 21, 2006 at 19:04:41
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