Strategy Analytics concludes that, "although momentum is building, many barriers remain before the muscle of mobile advertising and marketing can be fully flexed." SMS based mobile marketing activity has been dominated by companies within the FMCG sector, like Cadburys and McDonalds to date. Yet, as the availability of mobile multimedia content grows we expect greater participation from large advertising brands in the entertainment industry and those that have products targeted at the Young, Active and Fun, consumer segments, such as Nike. "Although there is growing interest in wireless from parts of the marketing community, take up will be tempered by weak consumer response rates, skepticism about the effectiveness of mobile advertising vis-�-vis traditional channels, (like TV and direct mail), and carriers' reluctance to compromise their position as the premium content delivery channel." "Advertising over wireless is more complex than TV, radio, and the Internet, because of the fragmentation caused by handset diversity and the uncertainty of take-up rates of different mobile technologies like video and Java. We expect sponsored video and audio services to grow strongly over the next five years capturing 17 percent of total spend by 2010, while browser based advertising will claim the greatest share with 44 percent."
Try to imagine this scenario, that General Motors and Ford were given exclusive franchises to build America's interstate highway system, and also all the highways that connect local communities. Now imagine that, based upon a financial crisis, these troubled companies decided to convert all "their" local arteries into toll-roads -- they then use incremental toll fees to severely limit all travel to and from small businesses. Why? This handicapping process reduced the need to invest in building better new roads, or repairing the dilapidated ones. But, wouldn't that short-sighted decision have a detrimental impact on the overall national economy? It's a moot point -- pure fantasy -- you say. The U.S. political leadership would never knowingly risk the nation's social and economic future on the financial viability of a restrictive duopoly. Or, would they? The 21st century Global Networked Economy travels across essential broadband infrastructure. The forced intro...