Random header image... Refresh for more!

10 Mobile Predictions for the next 12 months

by Phil Barrett

Earlier this year I made 10 predictions for mobile - and many of them have already come true! Check out the original post here. 

As part of their mobile insert this month, Strategy Magazine asked if I could provide 10 new sets of predictions… so here they are 10 predictions for the Canadian Mobile marketing ecosystem over the next 12 months as printed in this month’s issue:  

  1. Fixed Bluetooth networks will appear all over the country - giving marketers and advertisers proximity marketing abilities as seen in the UK and South Africa
  2. One carrier will start the 2d bar code craze by introducing a line of devices that come with a decoder pre-installed. Scanning heads of lettuce for nutritional information will become common-place shortly after (as they already are in Japan)
  3. The Mobile web will become more important for marketers as a channel than SMS as devices such as the iphone and the blackberry bold (and rumoured thunder) will raise the bar in terms of overall experience with a high speed mobile web experience on our national 3G network
  4. Mobile widgets and applications become bigger drivers for consumer behaviour than the device itself. It will no longer be just about the hardware
  5. Palm will make a comeback and once again compete in the “smartphone” space
  6. Thanks to built-in GPS in many devices, Location based services (LBS) mashups will make your mobile device more personal and relevant. Marketers will be shortly behind
  7. A new Social Networking utility goes totally mobile (with LBS) - and competes with facebook for Canadian mindshare
  8. Mobile gaming will explode in popularity - leading to strong growth in mobile advertising
  9. At least one new GSM national Carrier will enter the marketplace and will compete directly with Rogers. They’ll probably sell the iphone too. Look for either Bell or Telus (or both) to signal a move into supporting GSM in Canada as well
  10. Over 30 billion SMS messages will be sent in Canada - up from the predicted 18 billion this year

5 comments

1 voogel { 08.06.08 at 9:34 am }

Great article with challenging predictions! Let’s see by the end of 12 months what the results are. I’m convinced that mobile TV will play a role in the Canadian market as well by then.

2 Agaskin { 08.07.08 at 1:18 pm }

Interesting predictions - I’m agree with all of them - but the Palm one is really out there…lol

3 Sachendra Yadav { 08.10.08 at 4:05 am }

Don’t know too much about Canadian market, but I just can’t help blurting this out….. Palm… really… man they had it for the taking and they bungled it bad, kinda like Nokia. I can see Nokia rising from the ashes (Open Symbian… 16 handsets every second… huge developer base… satisfied customers… global reach.. Oh and watch out for their Ovi launch Q1 next year) but Palm… what do they have going for them… LiMo?

I’ll watch out for #7 as well

4 Phil Barrett { 08.10.08 at 2:24 pm }

Thanks for the comments!

Mobile TV could definitely come into play… and i hope it does.

The prediction about Palm is the one i’ve gotten the most flack over :)

I’ve been using a Palm Centro for the last week and so far it’s a great device - a good competitor to the BB Pearl.

It’s not going to move them to the top of the consideration pile, but my bet is that they will introduce other significant new products by the end of the year… which would be good for consumers. I’ll post a review in the next week

Speaking of Nokia - has anybody played with the N96 yet?

5 Websites tagged "2dbarcode" on Postsaver { 08.15.08 at 2:28 am }

[...] - 10 Mobile Predictions for the next 12 months saved by [...]

Leave a Comment