01/25/10 by Cellit Staff | Blog, Industry Blog | No Comments »
Cellit isn’t in the business of collecting charitable contributions from mobile customers. It’s a specialized business, and there are some very good companies that have focused on it. None-the-less, I’m very intrigued at the use of mobile to support the relief efforts in Haiti.
The numbers are staggering: as of Friday morning, the latest estimate had over $30 million in donations as having come in via text message. At an average donation of $10, it means that 3 million phone users have heeded the various calls to action and texted in. Looking at it another way, Mobile Commons has published a list with 31 domestic and international aid organizations collecting donations via mobile. 31 organizations, 3 million people!
The mobile total represents roughly 10% of total donations to date, as the Chronicle for Philanthrophy reported an updated grand total of over $355 million. Not to be scouffed at, 10% is still 10%, and a significant increase over any mobile campaign to date. Of more interest to me are the thousands of news articles that have focused on the mobile aspect, even to the exclusion of more traditional phone, email, web or mail methods of donation. Even major relief organizations have jumped on the bandwagon, with The Red Cross having splashed their homepage with the headline “Cellphones save lives in Haiti” and an appropriate mobile call to action.
Why the interest by me? There seem to be inflection points in the adoption of a technology platform. Malcolm Gladwell would suggest we call them tipping points; times when something gains critical mass. Mobile so far has had two major milestones that elevated various aspects of the technology into the collective conscious. The first was the use of text-voting in American Idol, as ordinary Americans rushed out to buy an AT&T phone so they could text “IDOLS01” and propel their favorite candidate forward another week. The second was the widely written about use of mobile during the Obama Presidential campaign – and most notably when he announced his choice of Vice President via a text message.
I’ll argue that today, we sit in day 5-6-7 of another inflection point: the real dawn of mobile commerce. It is fundamentally huge that 3 million people have donated to such a worthwhile cause; it’s even bigger that so many of the media outlets have popularized the idea of mobile donations/mobile commerce to a much larger audience. The implication for businesses is that their consumers are now ready to engage in real, monetary transactions via SMS or mobile web site. Cellit is pioneering this field, launching several client projects in early 2010 that will significantly expand the number of large retailers and food service industry players with a mobile commerce presence.
Most importantly, please donate to a charity of your choice. The devastation in Haiti is unbelievable. If you’re compelled to donate to a cause related to the relief effort, or another equally worthy cause closer to home, the key is to donate. And if it’s over mobile, even better.
01/25/10 by Cellit Staff | Cellit News, News | No Comments »
Cellit is featured in the INC 2010 Guide to Small Business Marketing using multimedia. INC is the daily resource for small business information for entrepreneurs.
12/24/09 by David Wachs | Blog, Industry Blog | No Comments »
Well folks, it’s that time of year again. Time for another round of predictions. Looking back, it seems that the last time I ran through predictions was in (yikes) 2007! Many (actually most) of those predictions came true. This time, I’m going to expand my predictions to cover the entire mobile industry, and not just text messaging. As Cellit is a full-service mobile technology/mobile marketing company (covering text messaging, mobile web development, and iPhone/Android app development) so too are our predictions. Let’s get to them:
- Symbian will drop from first place to forth in global new smartphone sales. Lacking a competitive operating system, Nokia’s Symbian group will be trumped by Blackberry, iPhone, Windows and Android. Android will also overtake Windows’ position and become the third largest smartphone OS, after iPhone. Symbian will only beat out Palm, and Samsung’s Bada. (Hey, these are predictions people, so I don’t need to back them up with reasons for my forecasts!)
- iPhone app development will curb as companies come back to the mobile web. With over 100,000 apps out there, the novelty of a mobile app will compare poorly to the ROI. Thus, companies will turn to developing robust mobile web sites that support multiple platforms.
- Flash Lite will finally become an acceptable offering. I predict Android will be the first smartphone platform to support Flash, and other platforms will follow (first Microsoft, then Blackberry, with iPhone taking up the rear). This will lead to the next revolution in mobile “apps”, quite possibly more substantially than the iPhone app revolution.
- Bada will fail.
- The Twitter craze will fade. Marketers will realize catering to Twitter followers is a very specific demographic, and will turn their attention towards developing direct relationships, through text messaging or some other means. Hopefully, this will mean less “follows us on Twitter” ads everywhere.
- Text messaging adoption will continue to grow. We’ve only seen the beginning, folks. The power is the network. The more “texters” out there, the more people will want to learn to text. 1.5 TRILLION texts were sent in the US in 2009. Look for another 150% YOY growth. That’s right: I’m pegging 2010 at 2.25 trillion texts.
- Mobile CRM in 2010!. Companies will follow best-of-class leaders (like Chase, GPS Insight, Sam’s Club) in developing SMS-based interactions with their customers. It’s not about marketing anymore! It’s about developing deep relationships with customers via mobile interaction.
- Mobile companies will be top on the list to be acquired. As the economy turns in 2010, acquisitions should continue to be on the rise. Expect to see some of Cellit’s larger competition get acquired. If you had to ask me, I’d say iLoop and Vibes, as both have investors that will need an exit.
- Sombreros will be fashionably worn at the Cellit office. As Cellit continues to grow, we will be expanding further into Mexico, providing a “one stop shop” for North American messaging solutions. I know this probably isn’t pertinent to most of you, but man is this exciting for us here at Cellit! Plus, our sangrita consumption is going to skyrocket. Maybe an opportunity for some of our readers to go long in tomato juice futures?
- POS providers will begin integrating mobile couponing extensions into their offering.Cellit provides a suite of mobile couponing systems, from the Widgit POS overlay, to APIs for integration with mainstream and custom-built POS systems. POS providers will turn to companies like Cellit in the coming year to build the couponing modules directly in to their platform, which can serve as an additional recurring revenue generator for the solution provider.
Well, that’s it for this year. Many will come true, some will not. Regardless, it’s our intention to do our best in the coming year to helpyour mobile predictions come true. If there’s anything we can do, please do not hesitate to reach out. And, if I don’t get the opportunity to speak with you, please have a happy, prosperous and (most importantly!) healthy 2010.
Best always!
David
12/15/09 by Cellit Staff | Cellit News, News | No Comments »
Cellit is featured in the PMQ guide to going mobile for small, independently owned pizza businesses. The article is featured on pages 40-43 of the December 2009 issue.
