Archive for January, 2010

SMS Preferred Mode of Communication on Mobile

New research continues to point to huge increases in preference for SMS over other forms of mobile communication.

According to a survey conducted by Tekelec (a messaging company powering telecom operator applications), 60% of 45 year olds were found to be just as likely to use SMS as they were to make voice calls from their mobile device. The survey of 500 people in North American and Europe also found that text messaging is gaining on email as the preferred means of daily international communication, with 32% of responses across all ages preferring SMS, compared to 33% for email. And nearly a third of respondents said their use of SMS would increase in 2010.

In addition, more than 80 percent of respondents across all age groups thought they would get a quicker response from a text than from an email or voice message. Women preferred to let their fingers do the talking, with 40% describing themselves as ‘mainly texter’, compared to 30% of men.

One more difference between the sexes: women were more likely to engage in TV voting via text, with 25% versus just 14% of men engaging in such behavior.

But those under 35 were the most likely age group to vote via text, with 16% of them saying they do so, followed by 9% of 35-44 year olds, and 7% of those 45 and older. However, 35-44 year olds are the largest consumers of news and sports by text at 18% compared to 17% for those under 35, and only 8% for those over 45.

SMS – A look ahead at growth for M2M (machine-to-machine)

AT&T and Verizon Wireless nearly doubled their text message traffic from third-quarter 2008 to third-quarter 2009, showing that SMS continues to become even more pervasive.

While person-to-person (P2P) messages will keep increasing, the next major growth area is in fact machine-to-machine (M2M) SMS.

ABI Research recently released data showing that M2M SMS and MMS message volume will have a compound annual growth rate of 40.06 percent from 2008 to 2014 (“Mobile Messaging Services: SMS, MMS, Mobile Email, and Mobile IM,” 4Q 2009).

Brands can capitalize on SMS M2M to more rapidly meet their customers’ needs. For example, vending machines located anywhere with cellular reception can send texts when inventory is low, rapidly and affordably assuring that goods remain in stock. M2M will open up an entirely new growth area as new solutions focused on cost savings emerge.

Bottom Line: SMS & M2M will bring huge growth in mobile over the next decade as consumer prefer SMS for their mobile communication.

January 12, 2010 in Blog   |   1 Comment

Mobile Marketing Center Lets Companies Reach On-The-Go Consumers In 2010

QWASI updates its integrated mobile marketing platform to provide superior mobile marketing services to its clients.

PHILADELPHIA, January 7, 2010 – QWASI Inc., one of the leading enterprise mobile marketing application companies providing interactive mobile solutions for the US mobile market and small and medium-sized businesses (the SMB market), announced today the official launch of the QWASI Mobile Marketing Center 2.0. With this release, it’s never been easier to build, manage and analyze mobile marketing campaigns through a self-managed online portal. Companies of any size can seize the opportunity of enterprise features that mobile marketing offers through the power of QWASI’s mobile marketing platform.

With twice as many users of SMS than email globally and over 125 billion text messages sent every month in the United States, 45% of brands have already deployed text messaging campaigns, with a projection of 89% planned to go to market by 2010. There has never been a more important time to engage customers via the mobile communication channel. QWASI is committed to helping clients and companies navigate effectively through the mobile landscape as they reach SMB consumers on-the-go. The QWASI Mobile Marketing Center 2.0 now provides its clients with the platform that will help to launch their campaigns into the mobile marketing space and realize the power of mobile.

QWASI provides its clients with a variety of key services designed to better promote marketing campaigns with mobile services. With the ability to quickly set up interactive text messaging and mobile campaigns from any browser, QWASI gives its clients the power to control their own interactive mobile marketing solutions.

The QWASI Mobile Marketing Center 2.0 provides such popular features and new services including:
• SMS Auto Responders (NEW): Power drip marketing via text messaging to opt-in users.
• Info-on-Demand: Providing information via custom Keywords. Capture opt-in users for future message blasts including email addresses (NEW).
• Blasts / Alerts: Send text messages to subscribers. Keep customers informed of promotions, offers & events.
• Mobile Coupons: Distribute coupons to potential customers who have opted-in to receive your promotions. Track usage with Promo Codes (NEW).
• Text-to-Win: Enable potential customers to text in a special keyword to instantly enter-to-win a prize.
• Text-to-Vote: Have interested customers text to vote on a topic and provide real-time results.
• Ringtones, Wallpapers & Mobile Video: Deliver rich content to customers with MMS and mobile downloads.
• Website Widget: Build a subscriber list from web-widgets .
• Custom Applications: The Marketing Center API allows companies to build any custom mobile messaging application.

“Many of our new features in this release have been in use for QWASI enterprise clients. We’re now making them available to small and medium size companies to leverage the mobile channel,” states David Geipel, COO and Co-Founder of QWASI, Inc. “We enable companies to power a simple mobile campaign and provide them with tools that connect companies with their customers. We’ve seen an insurgence of companies desiring to utilize a short code to power one-to-one mobile messaging. With the Mobile Marketing Center API, we’re also enabling other companies to power highly interactive campaigns using the same API our platform uses. QWASI has been providing successful and cost effective mobile campaigns for over 5 years.”

QWASI’s Mobile Marketing Center 2.0 also enables companies to white-label a powerful mobile marketing platform using a shared short code provisioned on wireless carriers including Alltel, AT&T, Boost, Centennial, Cellular One, Dobson, Immix, Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile, Virgin, Verizon and other second and third tier carriers. The platform provides companies the ability to give their clients access to further provide control over their marketing campaigns. In addition, the service can be connected using a dedicated short code (vanity or random).

ABOUT QWASI
QWASI, Inc, is a leading mobile solutions provider of interactive applications for clients across the US utilizing SMS (text messaging), MMS, WAP and iPhone applications, QWASI makes complexity to simple with mobile marketing, mCommerce (mobile commerce), private label mobile search tools, click-to-chat, click-to-text, Mobile IM (MIM) applications, interactive property marketing services and customized alerting for Fortune 1000 businesses.

QWASI CONTACT
Patricia Scanlon, QWASI, 877-747-9274, patricia.scanlon @ qwasi.com

January 7, 2010 in Press Releases   |   No Comments