Category Archives: Commentary and Reviews

A brief discourse of what is affecting the Cellular Business, it’s Products and the Services offered.

Mainstream Media is Saying…One of the Best Ad Platforms Todate.

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… Lately we have seen an increase in activity in the Cellular Advertising Campaigns. A CNN report ran on August 13, 2010 that most Small Businesses are looking for ways to increase traffic in their stores. One company is doing just that by offering Mobile Advertising via the Cellular Networks. Today most Smart Cell users have opted-in for advertising on their Web enabled phones. That offers a Small Business owner, a Great Untapped Source of Customers that could be Targeted for Direct, Event Driven Advertising. For example: Lets say a Small Sandwich Shop is running a 
“Special Limited Offer”

Come in Today and Buy our

Regularly Priced Sandwich and

Get a Free Chocolate Chip Cookie.

Coupon Expires 8/15/2010

The above example is about 137 characters.  The limit is of course 160 text characters. Or one may use a small Graphic or Logo. This could be easily texted and targeted by GPS locality to all local potential patrons by a direct message to their phones where they could just walk in and show the Cashier the “Text or Graphic (with Your Logo) Coupon” to take advangatge of the stores Special Offer. In all the years of advertising history, this likely is the most powerful form of Direct Advertising, Why?

3 Reasons to Consider.

1) Think about it, When we all leave our homes , we take along our Car Keys and usually our Cell Phones right?
Well, with today’s technology in the Cellular World, we now have a advertising platform that is within a hands reach of all who own a web enabled Cell Phone. So any Ad Messaging sent out can either be an “Instant Text Message” or can be a “Scheduled Ad” delivered through out the day.

2) It’s Targeted – You can select by Device (maybe you have a Fancy new Wrap-around Case to Go with that New iPhone) So you could just target iPhone users. Or maybe you just don’t care which phone they use, what matters to you might be that this potential customer is shopping near your store now. IE “Come On In and Shop with Us.”  Why spend your Ad dollars on Printed Coupons that typically are forgotten and left home or left in a Store across Town or County where your customers are just too far away to take you up on your offer.

3) It’s Event Driven – We all know that things have a time limit on their usefulness. Your Ad Dollars are just the same. A Pending event “A Coupon Expiration Date” motivates the consumer to take action! Your Ad can simply say valid until …..Date ? Time? that’s up to you as a Merchant! So, This is Powerful Stuff!
Case studies have show that upto 73% of Cell Phone users want to get this type of advertising made available to them, to save money. Plus, it has shown a 4% increase is sales just using this type of medium to promote your business.
Let’s run the numbers.

 

Lets say you sell $1,000.00 in sales in a day, times 30 days in a month, that’s $30,000 in Gross Sales. With a 4% increase ($30000 / .96 = $31,250 in Gross Sales, less about $150 – $300 a month for a small Mobile Ad Campaign ) which equals $30,950 in Net Sales. Thats a cool $900+ a month extra  or $10,800 extra a year, Cash in your pocket. Now compound the fact that these new customers will likely make a return visit to your establishment. The number starts to grow dramatically and geometrically. 

 
This Story will continue I’m sure.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For additional information on this program Contact: http://www.scechols.com

 

 

Cell Giants are having to go back to Securing their GSM networks.

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It is un believable that in the modern technology available in the marketplace that we see that some of the Giants in the Cell Phone industry are still offering an unsecured network to their customers.

Just last week at a Cell Phone Industrial Show a known hacker was able to show with as little as $1500 he could tap into anybody’s GSM phone, by simulating a Cell Tower.  Back in January of this year a Conference in the Netherlands showed how cheaply a hacker can acheive this.  So who uses the GSM network.. AT&T, T-mobile just name a couple.  However, using the CDMA network used by  Alltel, Verizon and Sprint has it’s advantages today, it’s still secure. 

So we’ll see as time moves on who will take the extra measure to offer a more secure solution in the future..

See  the link: http://information-security-resources.com/2010/01/11/cell-phone-tapping-gsm-encryption-hacked/

The Cell Phone Wars | The Battle Lines are Being Drawn!

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June 11, 2010

Yes, lately we have seen Apple/AT&T all but boot Mother Google and it’s children (Android OS Phones) out of the IPhone Apps Store.   Apparent, by Apple’s showing nervousness,  by the placing of “new data restrictions” on AdMob (recently acquired by Google) and others that are associated with Google,  by  Apple’s IAd Mobile Phone campaigns.

The fear factor tends to kick in when you have an “Android” , of the family of  Google Titans , sitting in your living room, and eating at your table and munching out of your fridge.  So what else could Steve Jobs do but say , “Get that Soon to be Gigantor” out-ta here.  Steve Jobs made his bed with an AT&T marriage and is nervous  about the future bottom line.   And  “Think about it, as a side note”,  if you as a Free Consumer, want an IPhone reasonably priced, you too need to wear the AT&T handcuffs,  and do time in the AT&T prison for a two year stint… An unpleasant experience.  I guess that’s why they call it a jail-break if you unlock the phone. (Note a Plug: To avoid this unpleasant experience.. check out the Upper Right Link to an alternative Free Cell Phone Plan available.)

 So, it’s obvious, anyone who’s not in locked step with the Apple/AT&T venture, is viewed as a distraction and on the front-line of the opposing team.   

Apple’s actions are reminiscent of the of the years of Jobs leadership  back in the “PC Wars of Apple vs IBM/MS DOS”,  when the two Titans of the PC world, were at battle for the dominate position of operating systems.

This strategy  appeared to set  Apple back in market share, by closing their Operating System and not letting it out to open source development.  Thus, Bill Gates and Microsoft took off, by allowing other developers to collaborate on the MS Operating System and allowing them to design many different applications to work with the Windows system.  Mr Gates was a visionary in doing this then, and I believe that an open source environment is a better ecosystem for both developers and consumers today.  This is not to say Mr Gates was not a “Great White Shark”, in the “Sea of Business Compreditors” , but I am saying that he was a “Smarter Great White Shark”.  

This does not mean any one system will be the dominate system. But, at least we will have a choice and the competition will be fierce.   As a consumer I want this, it tends to keep the price of new gadgets and plans honest and sometimes affordable. 

 If you recall at one time Ma Bell /AT&T was the only game in town if you needed a home phone. And that’s why it was broken up by Uncle Sam to be Baby Bells ie (Pacific Bell, SW Bell, Bellsouth, NYNEX etc.)  to make it appear less of a monopoly. And I do mean “appear”.   Funny though it went out as Baby Bellsouth only to be re-combined again under AT&T.   Government allowed,  possibly due to the fact so many households have dumped the hard phone lines in the home, to move to wireless home phone options. But that’s another story.

Today, in The Cell Phone Wars the Battle Lines are being Drawn , and again the developers have to choose which horse are they going to ride. Do you develop apps for the more open source  Sprint  / HTC / Android / Google smart phones or do you develop for Apple/AT&T Iphone? These are hard times and hard questions, since  Financial Futures are at stake,  and many small developers have limited cash reserves dedicated for R&D  to get their “baby App” to market.  So, if one is an Apple fan, and a developer, and if your not accepted as a red-headed step child in Apple, you might have a chance.   But, now with these new events in the News , it appears many developers will have a choice, they can jump over to Mother Google’s side for a while.  While we, as consumers, on the sidelines, may be in a front row seat at “The Shootout at the  OS Corral”. 

History will show, there will be a Winner and a Looser in this contest, but as a Consumer, I think we will win just from the competiton.  That is of course, if a Government “Politician” doesn”t step in and tip over the Scales of Capitalism with some act of “Social Balance” with a New Law or New Regulation.

Steve Echols, Systems Consultant

A Humble Observer and My 2 Cents