Google to pull its SMPP API

Developers will not be able to put free SMS sending modules to their applications anymore. In fact it is not a surprise to anyone, google was planning to compensate the SMS with advertising. But even they could not find a way to attract the optimum traffic.

This step by google has affected Innerfence more than anyone else. Innerfence is a company (or should I call was) whose iphone application allowed buyers to send SMS messages around the world while Google paid the network operators for the traffic. I believe there will be trials between the buyers and innerfence, which is a shame for a nice application.

The only way to offer free SMS is start a program just like blyk. For every commercial watched, some free sms could be offered. In fact there are lots of examples for this but none has succeeded yet. The formula might be (Social Network + Commercials) = FreeSMS.

For one example of this visit the Facebook Sponsored SMS application, FaceSMS - http://apps.facebook.com/sponsorsms/ I have to warn you, if there is not a sponsor at the moment you click, you are not allowed to send text.

Turkcell Partners day 2009

Cenk Serdar , Ekrem Yener

Awards presentation

Vodafone lays off at least 260 in Turkey

No matter what their officials tell, it is certain that drop of sales led to that. Vodafone might be the worst managed telecom related company in Turkey. There was a wide margin between them and Avea in the number of subscribers in Telsim days, now they are almost becoming the smalles gsm operator in Turkey.

I believe there is no need to tell that they have no Value added services or innovative plans for this market. Some people in UK might be writing an exit plan at the moment.

Related posts:

http://mobil-pazarlama.blogspot.com/2008/05/iphone-vodafone-ile-geliyor-ama.html

Turkcell is planning to create a version of BLYK in Turkey

3G is coming to the Turkish market at last in May 2009, and one of Turkcell's first projects is to imitate Blyk and to provide free talking minutes to subscribers that will watch the ads.

In May 2008 in one of my posts I asked whether anyone will try this in Turkey or not. (link: http://mobil-pazarlama.blogspot.com/2008/05/bedava-sms-bedava-konuma-trkiyede-blyk.html)

Time has come. We'll see if the experiment will succeed or not. The ads will probably look something like this:

Turkcell Mobile Marketing services

Corrections to the MYTHS OF MOBILE MARKETING

1. Mobile marketing is expensive You need to use a calculator. Have you heard of CPM? Mobile marketing has the highest ROI amongst all media. Mobile marketing let’s you know exactly who you’ll reach, and who has returned.

2. It’s a chaos to choose the right mobile media
You can always create your own mobile application, your own mobile web site and you are always free to choose which gsm operator/carrier to use. You can even use more than one operator. I don’t think being free to choose means chaos.
3. I cannot reach all of my customer segments via mobile.
Those days are gone. Today number of mobile devices is more than twice of standart pstn phones. You just have to reach every segment with different campaigns and different techniques. .
4. Mobile marketing is a new spam method.
Working with a certificated mobile marketing agency and only using a permitted data base will differentiate your company from the spammers. If you create an interactivity you will never be recognized as a spammer.
5.Mobile marketing should only be very small part of my marketing communications budget.
If you go on thinking like that your competitors that are using every inch of mobile marketing will create a huge competitive advantage one way or another. My 1st and the 3rd comments shows you what to do. You need create different mobile marketing projects for every segment of your customers. Mobile marketing is the closest thing to one to one marketing.
6. I don’t miss anything by not using mobile marketing
All of the FMCG companies, Automotive companies, Banks, Food & Beverage companies, Fashion and Clothing brands use mobile marketing one way or another. Once you blink you’ll lose a market share.
7. Mobile Marketing only boosts awareness nothing else…
Awareness is almost everything.
But by the help of mobile marketing you can,
Ø increase your sales (announcing the incentives via mobile media)
Ø establish a loyalty program (one msisdn –phone number- means your identity, once you reach your customers phone you will know how to impress them and make them loyal to your services.)
Ø You can position your brand by choosing an exact segment of people and by using word of mouth techniques attached to your mobile marketing project.
Ø You can design surveys, and can measure everything related to your customers via SMS, MMS, Wap-Push, Mobile sites, Cell broadcasting etc.
Ø You can gather a permission based marketing database. You can update it by reaching them via mobile media.
Ø You can directly sell through mobile channels. You can use mobile payment methods.

Game over Handango

• The Android Marketplace for free apps will go live Monday.
• Iphone applications is being installed via Installer or via Appstore for more than one year.
• We have got Nokia's OVI.
• RIM is planning to open its app store in March 2009.
• Samsung says their's is coming pretty soon.

Can we say "game over Handango and Motricity duopoly"?

The least we can expect is people to start picking their handsets on the basis of what applications they run, and is prepared to spend money to make sure the greatest applications work on their devices.
By the way it is remarkable that third party developers will start making money out of this :)