Going mobile?
 

You will have heard alot about mobile recently. Whilst others dismiss it as hype ('who the heck wants to watch porn on a 2 inch screen?'), others
(Larry Flynt included) are predicting that it will be the next 'big thing'. Time will tell, but it is worth bearing in mind that adult has historically been the key driver in any new medium.

One thing is for sure. Many of you guys are already sitting on digital content. Mobile is simply another distribution channel, and you have the opportunity of turning bytes into bucks.

With mobile, it is important to think outside the (PC) Box. Mobile is much more than just about watching porn all your cellphone. It is about Personal Portable Pleasure anytime, and more importantly, anyplace.

SMS chat services have already proved to be very popular in Europe. And all the customer gets is a lousy 160 characters of text, probably written by a male robot. Just think about how much more compelling chat services will be when the end-user can actually see Sexy Susie in realtime...

Such services already exist, but this time the technology is ahead of the market - the majority of people do not yet have the handset needed to enjoy such services.

However, the cellcos worldwide have invested billions into the next generation of products/infastrucure and clearly will be spending millions more
in the month and years to come persuading us all to go out and buy the new all singing, all dancing handsets.

You may find the following links useful:

A wapsite is like a mobile website and to create one you should use software such as www.wapple.net

Until recently, the mobile internet could be compared to the fixed line internet of 10 years ago. But the walled gardens are coming down!

To surf the mobile internet from the comfort of your PC check out this cool
WAP emulator : www.mooobl.com

One company who have a broad portfolio of mobile producs are the UK based
www.adultmobilesolutions.com, winners of last year's XBIZ awards in the 'mobile solutions' category. These include:

1- www.mpush.com - allowing you to sell your web content straight to mobile -
see eg www.extrememobileporn.com - However, do not expect big bucks from this - conversions thus far have been poor.

2 - http://www.menable.co.uk allows you to charge access to your Website to Cellphone owners. If you impliment this, do not have it hidden on your paypage. Make it clear to surfers in your tours that they can pay you this way!

3- http://www.mchat.cc enables you to start offering SMS chat services as described above.

As for good consumer facing sites out there, from what I can see there are really not all that many. One rare exception are the Barcelona based www.mooobile.com, whose website drives users to their Wapsite.

Further info can be found on my spectacularly unspectactular blog www.marcjarrett.com

Hopefully the army of dating sites out there will soon wake up to the opportunities afforded by mobile. A simple SMS alert service will add value to their product by allowing subscribers to recieve 'alerts' wherever they happen to be. Such sites can and should also allow members to chat anonymously amongst themselves using SMS. Unlike Email, they then earn $$$ per SMS generated.

Early days - the party is only just beginning - but this market is heading one way and one way only - north.

Nice info. :thumbsup

Thanks! Some stats:

Mobile Usage Statistics
1.7 mln mobile phones sold in Taiwan in Q3 2005
10.8 mln mobile subscribers in Bangladesh
125.8 mln mobile subscribers in Russia
15 mln mobile TV subscribers by 2009
16.7 mln cell phones sold in Q3 2005
2.5 bln mobile subscribers by the end of 2006
2.75% of mobile subscribers use virtual operators
20% of Australian phone users ready to cut the cord
21.02 mln mobile users in Argentina
242 mln mobile phones sold in Q4 2005
27% of Japanese mobile consumer use bar code readers
3.8 mln of British mobile users had some SMS-related injury
324,763 mobile subscribers in Malta
33.32% of US mobile users sent or received text messages
398 mln mobile users in China
4.09 min mobile subscribers in Belarus
4.13 mln mobile subscribers in Lithuania
5% of US mobile users use mobile Web
54.1 mln Americans use Cingular, 51.3 mln - Verizon
610 mln mobile subscribers in China by 2009
7.46 mln mobile subscribers in Vietnam
825.5 mln mobile phones sold in 2005, 16.7% growth
86.2 mln Brazilians have mobile phones
9.32 mln mobile subscribers in Hungary
930 mln mobile phones to sell in 2006
Ireland is at 100% mobile penetration
Mobile phone market share for Q4 2005: Nokia - 34.1%, Motorola - 18.2%, Samsung - 11.1%
Mobile phone revenues reached $115.1 bln in 2005
PIM freaks spend 13% more on wireless bills than average cellular users
Revenues per mobile user down by 11% in Finland in 2005
US is at 70% wireless penetration

I love that WHO song...